XSGCOM: Terra from the Deep
by Hotpoint
Summary: Crossover between SG1 and XCOM. As old enemies fall by the wayside new ones appear to challenge the Tau'ri and their allies.
1. Chapter 1

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

_**IMPORTANT NOTE** - This story is a sequel to **XSGCOM: Mirror Image**, you are well advised to read that one first because you've got 52 chapters and a third of a million words worth of catching up to do! I would however advise all readers to read the version of both stories that appears on the fanfic site **Twisting the Hellmouth** rather than here. The formatting is superior and the Author's notes have handy hyperlinked references. There is a link on my profile here that'll steer you the right direction. _

* * *

**Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – May 2004**

'Major Carter it's out of my hands' Elizabeth Weir told the officer who had intercepted her just outside her office attempting to gain a few minutes of her time before they were due to meet Major Davis in the briefing room. Weir had only just managed to get off the phone to the new X-COM administrative headquarters in Geneva and she wasn't happy about the outcome of the conversation. The Optricans were asking for more troops to assist in their pacification of Bedrosian territory and specifically that the new Langaran Psionic-Warfare-Specialists with Psi-Amps and Mind Probes be deployed to help crush the insurgents once and for all. X-COM was willing to support the proposal, and the Langaran nations considered aiding Optrica a debt of honour after Optrican soldiers fought to drive off Loki's invasion of Langara, but others including Weir were less than happy at the idea of forcibly screening every Bedrosian one after another in order to root out the religious extremists who were conducting a terrorist campaign in the name of their god Nefertum. It had an extremely oppressive and authoritarian air to it all even if it would be effective and likely save a lot of lives.

'Jack O'Neill literally _saved this planet_ and they're going to let him stay in that box?' Carter continued in an exasperated tone.

Weir stopped walking. 'Samantha I _agree_ with you' she said. 'We both know that Heimdall has already agreed to extract the information from Colonel O'Neill's mind, the problem is that almost everyone in authority including the IOA considers that knowledge far too valuable to be lost' she said. 'The Asgard would simply erase it like last time.'

'To save his life' Carter interrupted. 'There was an Asgard ship in orbit above Earth less than twenty-four hours after we defeated Anubis, the Colonel didn't need to spend so much as a _day_ in that thing but instead as soon as they helpfully beamed away all the larger pieces of debris that might have posed a danger once their orbit decayed we told them thanks for your help, you can go home now, and by the way could you do us a favour and dump off all the pieces of Ha'tak at Cydonia on your way home so we can pick through the salvage' she seethed.

'According to every medical report on his condition the Colonel's life is not in any immediate danger' Weir reminded her patiently. 'He's in stasis, his condition is not deteriorating and he's not even _aging_ ' she pointed out.

Carter frowned. 'Technically he is aging' she responded, 'just extremely slowly' she admitted.

'Major I've read your own analysis of the Ancient Stasis Chamber' Weir told her. 'A person could survive in one for thousands of years at least, perhaps tens of thousands' she said. 'It's not going to take us that long to figure out how to extract the Ancient knowledge from his head into some kind of computer.'

'It could be _decades_ before we have the technology required' Carter exclaimed.

'And he'll have aged a few minutes at most' Weir replied before sighing, 'for what it's worth I have told the IOA in the strongest terms that I feel we _should_ allow the Asgard to perform the procedure and bring the Colonel back to us right now' she said. 'I even tried to make the argument that we might need him to operate the Ancient Weapons Platform if another goa'uld tries to attack us' she continued, 'but the truth is other personnel likely have the same ability to interface with the Control Chair as the Colonel does and besides which we've already started to rebuild our other defences which _did_ prove highly effective in themselves.'

'We lost the _Enterprise_, the _Admiral Kuznetsov_ will need another two or three months worth of repairs, _Atlas_ is out of commission getting her hyperdrive made operational and they had to use spares taken from her to keep _Prometheus_ running in the meantime' Carter responded negatively. 'We're at least six weeks from getting any more ZapSat's put in orbit, twice that before we can put any more AG-3X satellites up there and you _know_ as well as I do what percentage of our F-302's and Avengers were lost fighting Anubis' she pointed out.

'Fortunately the goa'uld don't know any of that' Weir replied evenly. 'We know from the Tok'ra that the System Lords are currently scared witless because of what happened to Anubis and his fleet' she said. 'They seem aware it was the Ancient Weapon that won the day but they also know that we had already taken out at least half his fleet beforehand and it's got them rattled' she continued. 'Anubis had the most powerful warships and most advanced fighters of any of the System Lords and we were taking them down regardless, add in the fact that our soldiers were defeating Kull Warriors when their Jaffa were being butchered by them and its highly unlikely anyone will want to risk a confrontation with us right now.'

'Isn't there anyone else we could talk to?' Carter almost pleaded. 'You've got a direct line to the President don't you?' she asked.

'Yes I do' Weir confirmed, the Oval Office was number one on her speed-dial. 'Unfortunately the Vice President has more sway than I do and he is one of the major advocates of keeping the Colonel on ice until we can extract the database from his mind' she told Carter before checking her watch. 'We need to get going' she said, starting off towards the briefing room again, Carter following once more.

'The Vice President just wants the Colonel out of the way' Carter opined.

'I'm well aware of their personal history and mutual dislike for one another Major' Weir replied.

'What does X-COM think?' Carter queried.

'Well Commander Sharp thinks we should immediately defrost Colonel O'Neill so he can sit in the Control Chair, guaranteeing the safety of Earth against counter-attack' Weir replied. 'Then he insists we should modify all our remaining Avengers with the hyperdrive upgrades the Colonel made to the Tel'tak you used to get to Proclarush Taonas' Weir told her.

'Why?' Carter asked.

'Because the Commander wants to load the Avengers with our stockpile of naquadria and naquadah-enhanced nuclear devices and then efficiently bomb the System Lords back to the Stone Age before they know what's happening' Weir explained. 'We've got such a potential speed advantage over goa'uld ships he thinks they'd be unable to respond effectively to an all-out strategic bombing campaign.'

'He could be right' Carter replied, 'in terms of being correct in his tactical assessment, I'm certainly not going to try and say the incineration of millions of Jaffa is remotely _moral_ ' she said.

'The IOA politely turned down his suggestion when he presented it' Weir noted, 'he called them "a bunch of idealistic peaceniks" and went back to the Omega Site looking annoyed' she told the Major as they arrived at the briefing room.

Major Paul Davis looked somewhat grave, then again he usually only ever came to the SGC to deliver bad news so for all most people there knew that was really just his natural expression. He did at least look a little less grave than usual so maybe the end of the world wasn't as near as it typically was when he visited.

Daniel Jackson and Colonels Ferretti and Reynolds, the commanders of SG-2 and SG-3 respectively, were already say waiting when Weir and Carter arrived. They took their own seats and Major Davis began his report.

'The cover story seems to be holding so far' Davis told them, 'in fact it's working better than expected' he continued, offering a smile. 'It looks like the media is falling for it so the contingency plan of disclosure has been shelved for now' he said.

'People actually bought the story that freak solar activity caused all that EMP the AG-3's and Mark VIII's really caused just when every army on Earth went on alert?' Ferretti responded doubtfully.

Davis shook his head. 'A few people probably did but we never expected that to stick so we planted a few other stories underneath to catch the press when they went digging for the truth' he said. 'It's taken them a few months but a couple of the more determined newspapers and at least one news channel are about to break what they think is the greatest story of government cover-up since Watergate' he said.

'But nothing to do with an alien invasion right?' Daniel asked.

'No' Davis confirmed, 'in fact they think that talk of alien spaceships is just another amateurish cover-story dreamed up by the same mooks that thought "Solar Flares" sounded plausible' he said.

Weir chuckled, she already knew quite a lot of this. 'It's just a question of giving the press a story they want to think is true and one that the government would want to keep quiet if it was' she said.

Major Davis nodded. 'Once journalists really started to pry, contacting sources high-up in several world governments they had used before they started to hear a few rumours about all the military mobilisations back in March' he said. 'One phrase kept cropping up that set their alarm bells ringing as soon as they got home a punched it into google' he continued, 'Able Archer 83 all over again.'

'Able Archer?' Daniel repeated, confused.

'Able Archer was a NATO mobilisation exercise in 1983 designed to test preparedness for a Soviet Invasion of Western Europe' Davis explained. 'It nearly ended very, _very_ badly because the Russians got it into their heads that the exercise was really the prelude to a NATO pre-emptive strike against the Warsaw Pact.'

'Wow' Daniel responded, blinking.

'The Soviets went on alert and readied their Strategic Missiles for war' Davis continued, 'fortunately for all of us World War Three _didn't_ break out because of a misunderstanding but it _could_ have, in fact it was probably the closest we ever came to a nuclear exchange apart from the Cuban Missile Crisis' he said.

'And people think international affairs is a dry topic' Weir quipped.

Davis smiled at her joke such as it was. 'Now oddly enough just over a month before Able Archer there was another occasion that might have conceivably led to war when the Soviet Early Warning System reported an ICBM being launched by the United States' he told them. 'Fortunately the Russian Officer in command rightly decided it was just a computer glitch not a nuclear attack but consider what would have happened if the glitch had occurred during Able Archer when the Soviets were already poised to push the button' he suggested. 'What the press will discover, or at least _think_ they've discovered when they go looking into the events of March 2004 is that someone badly misread a Chinese military exercise as a prelude to an invasion of Taiwan which the PRC expected would trigger a limited nuclear exchange with the United States' he said.

'It's so horrifying that they'll _want_ to think its true' Weir commented.

'Bad news sells' Ferretti agreed.

Carter frowned. 'But how does this tie into the EMP, and all the debris people are actually seeing fall from the sky?' she asked. 'For that matter even with the government observatories keeping quiet there are plenty of civilians who witnessed those Drones being fired from Antarctica' she pointed out.

'That Major is because it became much worse than Able Archer ever did' Davis replied. 'You see the other story the press is going to learn about when they push hard enough is that for the last twenty years most of the major powers have been secretly launching armed satellites into orbit' he said. 'Those anti-missile and anti-satellite satellites with lasers, kinetic energy weapons and particle beams talked about in the 1980's they got built but not just by the US' he said.

'And some of them were presumably nuclear armed in direct contravention of the Outer Space Treaty' Weir observed.

'Of course' Davis replied. 'It was all an unfortunate chain of events' he said. 'China began a military exercise which was seen as a cover for an actual attack on Taiwan predicted by bad intelligence reports so the US went on high alert and mobilised' he said. 'With the United States going to DEFCON 2 China then mobilised for real and prepared its own nuclear deterrent, causing Russia, then India, to do so in response' he continued. 'Pakistan in turn mobilised and readied missiles because India had and then the rest of NATO, ANZUS and pretty soon the whole world did too thinking that the Third World War was about to break out because now suddenly everyone's weapon satellites were shooting at everyone else's too.'

Colonel Reynolds had been pouring himself a glass of water. 'Okay so what's the supposed story with the satellites about?' he asked.

'The planted story is that when the Russians went on full alert they activated their ABM and ASAT systems in space' Davis replied. 'Unfortunately a lot of their birds are old, cranky and should have been retired years ago and the moment they went live one of them started firing at an American platform' he said. 'Now we'd already activated _our_ satellites and when they're turned on they're programmed to defend themselves automatically so...'

'So our satellites fired back at the Russian satellite' Daniel interrupted, 'which then presumably triggered all the _other_ Russian satellites to start firing and pretty soon it cascaded into complete mayhem with any Chinese and European military satellites getting hit too' he worked it through.

'Right' Davis confirmed. 'Now some of the satellites, only a handful though, were armed with nuclear-pumped X-Ray Lasers and when _they_ went off they caused all the EMP as a side-effect' he said. 'The journalists will read about X-Ray Lasers when they look into the Strategic Defence Initiative so that'll fit what happened' he continued. 'Now as Doctor Weir said earlier putting nuclear weapons in orbit is a violation of International Treaty so no government would confess to being responsible increasing the plausibility of it being covered-up as the result of "Solar Flares".'

'And Antartica?' Carter asked.

'Once the US, China and Russia managed to sort out what was happening, and they found they couldn't stop it, a new ground-based Anti-Satellite Weapon which had built secretly in Antarctica was fired as a last resort to destroy the remaining weapon satellites in Polar Orbit' Davis told them. 'Neat isn't it?' he asked rhetorically.

'Placing something like that on the continent would itself be a breach of the Antarctic Treaty which expressly prohibits weapons been based or tested there' Weir observed, 'yet another reason for a cover-up' she noted.

Major Davis began playing with a pen. 'One of the biggest advantages of working through the X-COM structure is that every government, military and intelligence agency is already aboard on this' he said. 'Now we've made it very hard for the press to start to find out any of this but the sheer scale of it was apparently too much to hide in the end. Apparently the various governments were so nervous of this tale of woe, ineptitude and violations of international law leaking out they even tried to concoct some BS about aliens and ran with it for a while before somebody with more sense realised nobody was ever going to buy _that_ crap' he joked.

'It might make the National Inquirer' Colonel Ferretti responded, chuckling. 'I'll look out for it on the news stand' he added.

'You do that but the orders from above are that if anyone ever asks you about weapon satellites you will immediately look shifty and try and change the subject' Davis told them.

'Do we really think this will work?' Carter wondered aloud.

'People believing that their government is comprised of morons, criminals, gung-ho generals, clueless intelligence agencies and people trying to cover their own ass?' Daniel responded, looking at her knowingly. 'Yeah I can see that sticking' he said sadly.

'Point taken' Carter conceded. 'I'm surprised that all those governments would go along with a cover-story that makes them look so bad though' she said.

Major Davis sighed. 'There was a price to pay, of sorts' he said. 'Doctor Weir may know more of the details through her IOA connections if she's free to divulge them' he told her.

'I might as well, you'll all become aware soon enough anyway' Weir responded. 'We are about to enter a golden age' she declared with a wry smile.

'We are?' Daniel asked, raising one eyebrow.

'Within a month President Hayes will announce that a massive breakthrough has been made in fusion reactor technology by the United States' Weir told them. 'The design for a fully functional commercial fusion powerplant will be offered to every country' she continued, 'unlimited cheap electricity for all' she continued. 'It'll be a couple of years before the first is completed and generating power but soon the things will be all over the place.'

'I just hope someone remembers to translate the manuals from Eurondan' Daniel chipped in. Well it would raise far few questions if fusion reactors appeared than naquadah generators even if they were still alien technology he thought.

'I'll make sure to mention that' Weir responded, 'oh but there's more' she said. 'A few weeks after that the Japanese will announce they have perfected a lightweight battery which can store more than a hundred times the charge of anything else on the market' she told them.

'So much for gasoline powered cars' Carter observed, wondering what the OPEC nations were getting for going along with this. 'That'll be the power-pack design my robot copy made on Altair I assume?' she queried.

'Certainly not officially by any means' Weir replied. 'Before the end of the year we'll also see new alloys plus breakthroughs in lasers and computing' she said.

'If we start buying and selling stocks in advance would we get into trouble for insider trading?' Ferretti wanted to know, greatly impressing Colonel Reynolds for thinking of it.

Weir ignored the commander of SG-2. 'Then from 2005 onwards new pharmaceuticals are going to revolutionise medicine' she said. 'One can take the place of a failed immune system, another drastically speeds up the healing of injuries and last, but not least, there's an injection that'll mean you never get cancer' she listed them.

'Tretonin, Beta-Cantin and the Aschen Cancer Vaccine' Carter responded. 'Probably best not to release any of the nanotech we have yet though' she suggested. 'Regarding other pharmaceuticals we've encountered over the years however the anaesthetic we obtained on P3X-593 was highly effective and I know there was also a team trying to modify the goa'uld drug Rashna into a less addictive compound' she said. 'It's an extremely powerful analgesic but other than being a narcotic it doesn't have a lot of the other bad side-effects associated with opiates like morphine.'

Daniel crossed his arms. 'So releasing all this technology is the pay-off to the worlds governments for remaining complicit with keeping the Stargate program and the existence of the alien threats to Earth then' he stated.

'The standard of living for people right across this planet will soar' Weir told him, 'with fusion power we'll be able to do things like desalinate seawater and green the deserts, we can end poverty, hunger and disease in a generation if we put some effort into it.'

'And win a lot of politicians a lot of votes in the process' Daniel added sardonically. 'They'll claim all the credit you know.'

'Let them' Weir replied. 'I know that the Vice President is already positioning himself to say publicly that the fusion reactor research was carried out by the US military and he helped spearhead the project and ensured it received the budget it needed.'

'An outright lie that'll benefit him hugely in the polls if he's planning to run for President after Henry Hayes and if the truth ever does come out it wasn't really a _malicious_ lie, he was only doing his patriotic duty by assisting the cover story' Daniel remarked before humming a few bars from "Hail to the Chief".

'Won't people wonder about the timing of the announcement that the US has perfected fusion power... and we're giving it away?' Reynolds asked.

'The cynics will probably think that it's being done _precisely_ to get all the stories about treaty violations and space weapons off the front pages, and that we're giving it to other countries in return for them keeping quiet about it all' Major Davis replied. 'It actually helps add credence to the story if anything' he continued. 'President Hayes still has another three years before the next election to get people talking about fusion reactors instead of fusion bombs in space so he seems happy enough with the scheme from what I've heard on the Pentagon grapevine.'

Daniel sighed and looked at Weir. 'I assume you've read Mein Kampf' he asked her, Weir nodding. 'For some reason I can't help but remember Hitler's idea that the big lie was often easier to sell to the population than a little one because the more epic the untruth the less likely the majority were to think anyone would possibly make it all up' he said.

'Maybe so, but personally I still don't think most people would ever believe the actual truth is aliens unless we crash-landed a Ha'tak in Central Park' Ferretti opined.

* * *

**Omega Site – PX0-999 (Terra Nova) – June 2004**

Russell Sharp looked at the new rifle the scientist was holding up to show him doubtfully. 'Why bother to bring out a new version of our Laser Rifle when we're starting to produce enough elerium to equip everyone with a P3-A1' he asked Doctor Bill Lee who had arrived from the SGC with the prototype and a spring in his step and was now standing in front of Sharp's desk bubbling with obvious enthusiasm.

'Because the differences aren't just cosmetic' Lee told him, the weapon was less blocky in appearance that the previous laser rifle and that was the first thing people tended to note of course, that and the fact it was slightly lighter.

'Improved powerpack?' Sharp suggested, 'more shots?'

Lee shook his head. 'Well actually although the powerpack has been upgraded the L2-A3 fires less individual shots from a full charge' he replied apologetically. 'Two-hundred and fifty-five discharges at standard wattage' he informed the commander.

'_Less_ shots' Sharp responded negatively, narrowing his eyes.

'Yes and no' Lee replied cryptically before smiling. 'Before I explain that firstly I should probably tell you _why_ it fires less shots from a powerpack that carries more charge' he said.

Sharp sighed. 'Go ahead, I've still got half an hour before I need to gear up for a mission' he said, leaning back in his chair.

'Okay' Lee began, placing the weapon gently down on Sharp's desk. 'As you know the Tollan have been experimenting with elerium for a while now, ever since we gave them some samples to see if they could synthesize it in fact' he continued. 'Well during all the myriad tests they performed they discovered that if a beam of coherent light focused through a properly cut elerium crystal, instead of the materials both they and ourselves were already using for the purpose, you could produce a greatly more powerful beam' he said.

Sharp looked at the rifle with more interest now. 'How much more powerful?' he asked.

'It proved possible to double beam intensity but limitations on other materials meant if you did that you had to sacrifice rate-of-fire because you could melt the weapon' Lee replied. 'As a compromise the L2-A3 has a fifty-percent increase over the L2-A2 for only a very small reduction in time between shots when placed in rapid-fire mode.'

'Fifty percent increase?' Sharp queried. 'That's still a lot less firepower than a Heavy Plasma Rifle' he noted.

'True but you've got a lot more ammunition to compensate as it were' Lee replied. 'Another advancement we've made with the L2-A3 is that you can quickly eject the depleted power-pack and insert a fresh one' he said. 'A fully charged rifle and one spare pack gives you the equivalent of over fourteen clips for a P3-A1 so it's ideal for extended fire-fights.'

'You're selling this very well' Sharp told the scientist honestly, X-COM squads and SG Teams often found themselves knee-deep in hordes of Jaffa. On several occasions he had resorted to using his sidearm by the end.

'You haven't heard the best part' Lee told him, 'the L2-A3 also automatically recharges itself in the field between firefights' he declared.

'It _what_ ?' Sharp responded disbelievingly.

Bill Lee picked up the rifle again and began unscrewing the bottom of the hand grip. When it came free he put it down, reached inside the grip with one finger and hooked out a liquid-naquadah power-cell which he held up. 'This little widget not only powers the standard built-in zat'nik'tel it also trickle-charges the laser power-pack' he said. 'It takes about thirty seconds to charge the equivalent of one shot for the rifle however so a fully depleted pack takes about eight hours to be back up to maximum capacity' he continued, 'but it's good for at least a thousand shots worth of re-charging in the field before you need to replace the naquadah power-cell.'

'Congratulations Doctor Lee I am now officially impressed' Sharp told him. 'I'm on the verge of heaping gushing praise upon you in fact' he declared. This was indeed a sweet piece of hardware, teams armed with a mix of these and Heavy Plasma Rifles for dealing with Kull Warriors and Mini-Tanks would stomp goa'uld ass.

'If you'd care to add that to my annual performance evaluation and that of the other guys and gals that helped me we'd all be grateful for the endorsement' Lee replied.

'Consider it done' Sharp told him.

Doctor Lee smiled. 'Talking of endorsements the L2-A3 could represent a nice opportunity for us to open up a market lead in small arms' he said. 'I know the X-COM Finance Director was looking for something we could sell to the Optricans and other allies such as the Pangarans and Tagreans and I'll bet with the right marketing we could put them into mass-production reducing the unit cost and increasing profit margins' he suggested.

'Oh Dwoskin would _love_ that' Sharp agreed. The funding nations had already been making noises that perhaps X-COM could try and use its R&D and manufacturing arms to help cover its own ever-climbing expenses. They probably wouldn't be happy with some of the more destructive hardware being offered for sale to other worlds but an infantry weapon being sold to trusted allies might be approved without too much trouble, especially when Earth soldiers still had more destructive personal weapons in their arsenal, the P3-A1 Heavy Plasma Rifle and the BL-1A Blaster-Bomb Launcher. Besides Earth only the Tollan had the ability to produce the elerium allotrope from regular naquadah as yet and they weren't telling anyone else, their laws prohibiting the export of advanced offensive military technology and power-sources actually working in favour of the Tau'ri for once.

'The prototype is ready for field testing if you want to try it out properly' Lee told Sharp. 'I've got two spare powerpacks with me if you want to assign someone the weapon' he said, putting the liquid-naquadah power-cell back and screwing the retaining piece back onto the rifle.

Sharp chuckled. 'Oh I'm going to try this thing out personally' he said. 'You're coming with me to Jebanna' he told the rifle. 'We're gonna bag us a few Jaffa and hopefully some goa'uld who are looking for new hosts' he added.

'Then good luck to you both' Bill said as Sharp stood up, picked up the rifle and shouldered it.

'Hey you added an ammo-counter' Sharp noticed, looking through the rifles built-in electronic gunsight where a number was being projected below the cross-hairs.

'Just a little Head-Up-Display' Lee replied, 'it uses the same technology as the goa'uld eyepiece our pilots have on their helmets. 'You can turn it off if it becomes distracting' he told him. 'You've also got auto-focus zoom and night-vision' he continued. 'I'd probably better give you the manual to be honest' he realised.

'I'll skim it later' Sharp replied, 'do yourself a favour and visit the canteen before heading back to the SGC, we've got steak today served with this hot-sauce they make in Orban and it's great' he told him. 'I need to go brief the troops and get kitted up' he said. 'See you later Doctor and thank you again for all your efforts' he said, putting the rifle down on his desk once more and reaching out his hand to shake the scientists. 'You invent the tools we need to win the war and put them in our hands' he said with gratitude, 'between us we'll ensure that Earth always remains free' he declared with conviction.

As he rolled out of the stargate and then jarringly down the stone steps on the planet Jebanna Sharp decided to request better springs for either the seat of the suspension of the new Dune Buggies they were starting to employ off-world. For that matter the engines didn't make a very satisfactory sound either, he thought. An electric motor powered by a naquadah generator might be environmentally sound, and it could run continually for months without needing refuelling, but the roar of an internal combustion engine would have been preferable to the quiet drone of the motor in terms of being a fun ride.

On the other hand when five of the two-man machines started tearing along the dirt track towards the largest settlement on the planet, kicking up plumes of dust as they went, it was still quite a rush, Sharp decided. Always one to promote the principle of leading from the front this gave him an excuse to be in the lead vehicle whilst the lower ranks behind ate dust and they quickly made up ground, heading towards what an earlier survey by an agent posing as a trader reported was the largest settlement on the planet.

With both a gatling-staff and a laser cannon mounted on the roof, both powered by the same generator that turned the wheels, the lightweight buggies could put out plenty of firepower as well as being a faster way to get about than hiking to and from the stargate. You couldn't wear powered-armour and get into one unfortunately but generally unless they were expecting Kull trouble X-COM didn't usually wear the bulky and expensive suits. For one thing they tended to frighten the hell out of most human societies living throughout the galaxy who were medieval at best, the Tau'ri were trying to present themselves as the protectors and benefactors of the peoples who had been abducted from their world by the goa'uld millennia ago and looking like great metal monsters made it hard to get a fair hearing, or indeed anything more than running away and cowering.

Defeating Anubis had done wonders for the reputation of the warriors of the First World, and they were already legends on many worlds beforehand. As the tale spread of mere humans defeating the most powerful weapons of the most powerful and most evil of the gods in open combat, of great pyramid ships wrought asunder and the fearsome deathgliders humbled by the greater magics of the Tau'ri many planets were seeing the start of open rebellion, these in some cases supported by the surreptitious supply of crates of Staff-Rifles to the slaves and peasants that worked the mines and tilled the fields of goa'uld controlled planets throughout the galaxy. Smuggling contraband had been made easier because of efforts made by agents working for X-COM to cultivate ties with criminal elements such as the infamous and shadowy Lucians and weapons were often being shipped right under the noses of loyalist Jaffa.

According to a tip-off from the Tok'ra the people of Jebanna were preparing to send a few of their own people to a goa'uld world to be taken as hosts. They had been told that this act of loyalty and sacrifice would lead to there being no more people being taken for the next two seasons and the gods promised good weather and bountiful harvests in return also. The Tok'ra didn't know what world the "offerings" would be sent to but the people on Jebanna knew and that gave X-COM a mission, stop the people of Jebanna sending their sons and daughters to the goa'uld, find out where they were going to be sent, go there and in Sharp's words kick the shit out of whoever they find.

Jebanna was still in the Bronze Age, with the exception of a few planets where the people wore animal furs they made into clothing with stone knives it was about as technologically primitive a society as you can find in the galaxy. Needless to say when the strange machines arrived outside the village, metal carts that still moved though they had no horse or cow to pull them, the villagers panicked thinking it must be the gods come to claim more people than they had asked for.

A young girl, braver than most, watched out of the window of her home, half concealed by a curtain. A piece of woven cloth like one of the banners the goa'uld sometimes flew was fixed to a pole on one of the machines and as the wind took it she could make out the symbol depicted upon it. 'Tau'ri' she recognised it. 'Father it is the symbol of the Tau'ri of X-COM that the trader who visited two summers ago drew for us in the dirt' she announced, turning to her parents. 'Do you remember?' she asked. 'The man from Ferenginar that gave me my seashell necklace?' she added, fingering the pretty ribbon around her neck that the sea-shell hung from.

The girl watched a man wearing armour on his chest that was different from that worn by the Jaffa stride into the village square alone. 'Is there a village elder, a mayor or someone else I can talk too' he called out. He was wearing something that looked like two mirrors connected by wire over his eyes and he reached up to his face and took them off.

A few people began emerging nervously from their homes, one of them, the richest man in the village who owned the largest farms nearby approached the stranger, his eyes directed towards the ground submissively. 'What god do you serve?' he asked.

As the girl continued to watch wide-eyed through the window the stranger looked at the landowner askance. 'The only being in the galaxy I can ever be described as worshipping in any way, and currently tend to obey without question, is a hormonal pregnant woman and I only do what _she_ says because it makes for a much less stressful life' the man in armour responded. 'Please look up, I don't trust people that don't look you square in the eyes' he requested.

'Who are you?' the landowner asked, other villagers starting to approach too now. Some holding makeshift weapons such as bronze farming implements and one carrying a wooden quarterstaff made to try and slightly resemble a Jaffa weapon.

'I am Commander Russell Sharp' the stranger announced loudly. 'I and my soldiers fight the false gods of the goa'uld and we've come here to free you from their oppression.'

'Sharp of Canada' the little girl exclaimed and before her father could stop her she dashed outside with him trailing in her wake.

Judging from their expressions they had heard of him Sharp decided. Several looked totally intimidated, others shocked he thought but one of them looked defiant. 'There is no need for you to send your people to the goa'uld' he told the villagers. 'Just tell me the symbols you were to press on the chappa'ai before sending them through and I'll go there instead and ensure no one from that world ever bothers you again' he vowed.

'We have heard the Tau'ri magics are strong' a woman replied. 'Stories are told that they are stronger than the magics of the gods' she said quietly, looking around scared as if she feared being struck down for heresy.

'We have no magic' Sharp replied, 'the goa'uld have no magic either' he continued, 'we simply have weapons that they cannot stand against' he declared, turning back towards the others who had come with him. 'Fire a few bursts from the gatling-staffs into the air' he yelled.

Things atop the five horseless metal carts started to spin and then angled up they launched a hail of lighting bolts like those of a Jaffa weapon skywards, though many, many more. When they stopped the Tau'ri visitor turned back to the awed villagers. 'We do not fear the goa'uld' he said. 'The goa'uld fear _us_ ' he declared.

'Blasphemy' the villager with the wooden staff responded. 'I will strike you down in their name' he exclaimed, leaping to the attack.

Sharp dodged the first clumsy swing and deciding that blowing a hole in the idiot with his plasma-pistol would be an over-reaction he instead pulled his side-handled baton free and used it to help parry away the next blow. The villager was clearly not very good at this and Sharp waited until the local had unbalanced himself and then cracked him on the forearm hard with his baton, making the villager yelp and drop the staff. He then thumped him in the gut with the baton and when he bent double Sharp cracked him on the back of the head dropping him to the dirt.

'Oh stay down you idiot' Sharp muttered as the man shakily tried to rise again. 'Okay for the record this is _not_ magic, this is just a device you can't make yet but one day we'll show you how' he said loudly, pressing a recessed switch on the baton that caused electrodes to pop out. He pressed the baton against the man and put fifty-thousand volts through him leaving the true believer twitching on the ground in pain wondering why the gods had forsaken him.

Sharp pressed the switch again, the electrodes sliding back into the shaft of the baton and he was about to return it to the harness that held it when a little girl ran right up to him. The others looked scared but she was giddy with excitement and seemed to want to ask something. 'Hello' Sharp greeted her quizzically.

'Hello' the girl replied, starting to blush. 'If you're really Sharp of Canada that must be your Hockey Stick' she said, pointing at the side-handled baton. 'Can I have a look at it up close?' she asked hopefully.

* * *

**Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2004**

Daniel read the text message which had been transmitted to the SGC via the stargate. As he read the Goa'uld script he frowned. 'It's from one of the System Lords' he told Weir who like himself had also dashed to the Control Room when the warning of an unauthorised incoming wormhole sounded. 'Camulus, Celtic God of War' he added.

'Didn't Colonel Rodrigues raid his capital world recently?' Weir asked.

'Camulodunon, yes' Daniel confirmed. 'Camulus was hit hard during the war with Apophis, a fleet led by Zipacna razed a few of his worlds and last we heard he was struggling to re-build his forces' he said.

'So we kicked him while he was down?' Weir replied, 'I guess that does make it easier.'

'X-COM don't tend to put much stock in fair play or chivalry for that matter even if they do wear armour' Daniel observed.

'So is Camulus sending us threats?' Weir theorised. 'Vows of revenge perhaps?'

Daniel kept reading, as he did so his eyes widened. 'Wow' he exclaimed.

'I guess you mean that in the normal sense and it's not the name of another goa'uld with an inadvertently amusing name like Yu?' Weir responded.

'Sorry' Daniel apologised, 'it says he wants to arrange a meeting for the purpose of negotiating a treaty' he announced.

Weir looked suitably surprised. 'A goa'uld wants to arrange a treaty with us?' she queried doubtfully.

'Not just one Goa'uld. All of them. The System Lords' Daniel told her. 'They want to send representatives here' he said.

'Is it too much to hope that they're surrendering?' Weir joked sardonically.

'The fact that they'd even condescend to meet with us on anything approaching equal terms is more of a breakthrough than I'd ever expected' Daniel replied. 'When the System Lords sent delegates here before it was to negotiate with the Asgard, the SGC was just neutral territory' he said. 'You know under the terms of the Protected Planets Treaty the human race is officially recognised as a source of slaves and hosts for the goa'uld, certainly not a species to be negotiated with.'

Weir looked at the text, I've got to learn goa'uld, she thought. 'Presumably our defeat of Anubis has changed a few opinions' she reasoned.

'The goa'uld only recognise or respect the threat of force' Daniel noted. 'The Asgard practised gunboat diplomacy for precisely that reason and it would seem that the System Lords have decided that Earth is now sufficiently capable of doing them serious harm to be taken seriously.'

'Sounds like just another day at the United Nations' Weir observed humorously. 'It's not exactly a coincidence that the five permanent members of the Security Council are the five countries with the most nuclear weapons' she commented. X-COM wasn't a country so it didn't count although it now had a stockpile of devices from sub-kiloton to multi-gigaton that dwarfed that of any Earth nation.

'You do realise that the goa'uld doing this might be seen in some circles as justifying the X-COM approach of putting the military option first and foremost' Daniel warned.

Weir sighed. 'I'm sure certain individuals will spin it that way' she said. 'If it wasn't for keeping good relations with our allies and forging peaceful links with other powers Earth wouldn't be near as strong as it is now however' she pointed out. 'A recourse to violence and the threat of force is not always the solution' she stated.

Daniel nodded. 'I agree, but you might want to expect several more voices contending that whilst it's _not_ always the best way it works more often than some of us would like to think' he said regretfully. 'If you want to head to my office I've got some background reading you might want to go through on the System Lords since I assume the IOA and the US Government will be asking you to represent Earth' he said.

'I'd hope my track record puts me in that role' Weir replied, after all who else could boast so many successful treaty negotiations as her, both between Earth nations and between Earth and other worlds she considered as she followed Doctor Jackson towards his office. He had reclaimed it from Jonas Quinn after his return, reasonable since Jonas spent far more time back home on Langara these days than he did at the SGC, and it had only taken a few weeks before it once again resembled the workplace of someone slightly scatterbrained rather than a neat-freak.

'I'm afraid if the System Lords are coming here then I'll have to ask you to remain on Earth until after negotiations are concluded' Weir told him, as he opened his door.

'I wasn't quite as enthusiastic as Sam at going to watch the Asgard collapsing a star anyway' Daniel replied, stepping inside and switching on the lights. Where had he put those notes he had been gradually compiling comparing Tok'ra intelligence on the various goa'uld with the Earth legends concerning them he wondered?

Weir looked at him knowingly. 'I'm well aware that part of the reason Major Carter jumped at the invitation was that you all saw it as an opportunity to try and persuade Thor to champion the case for bringing Colonel O'Neill out of stasis to the IOA' she said.

Daniel smiled. 'That transparent huh?' he asked.

'I've never really thought of Teal'c and Sergeant Andianov as holding an interest in astrophysics' Weir told him, 'Samantha yes, and you out of scientific curiosity but not them' she said.

'Oddly enough though Jack would probably like to see it himself' Daniel told her, 'astronomy is the only academic field he's interested in as a rule' he said, opening a filing cabinet and starting to rummage through some papers.

'So when are we expecting the Asgard to turn up?' Weir asked.

'Any day now' Daniel replied, scanning one sheet of paper and then putting it back. 'They're sending a science vessel to collect Heimdall, her research and equipment and the rest of us were going to hitch a ride to Ida' he said. 'The Asgard are still a little embarrassed that they didn't send any ships to help defend Earth so the invitation might be an olive-branch of sorts, make sure we're still on good terms' he continued, 'plus it was us that helped trap the Replicators on Hala and that wasn't even the first time we helped Thor defeat the things.'

'It's probably a good thing that some of the goa'uld did try to attack other planets covered by the Protected Planets Treaty or there would have been a few less than politely worded comments directed at the Asgard High Council' Weir told him.

'Twenty-seven planets covered by the Treaty including ours and the Asgard couldn't possibly send ships to them all' Daniel replied. 'So many of the System Lords have Ha'tak motherships with at least some of the weapon and shield upgrades Anubis came up with now and only an O'Neill Class warship can be guaranteed to win a fight with two or three of those' he said, finally finding what he was looking for. He would give her a few brief pointers and then it was over to the President and the IOA to make the call what they were going to do, Daniel realised, it was certainly an exciting prospect to have a goa'uld delegation here but part of him was feeling guility that a thought had crossed his mind it was probably for the good that Jack wasn't around, his incessant goa'uld-baiting would have undoubtedly caused ructions.

Fortunately most of the goa'uld had decided to sit it out quietly, ignoring the prompting by Anubis to attack a few of the other Treaty worlds whilst he attacked Earth but Olokun had sent a decent force at a world called Galar and a minor goa'uld, Sargon, had tried to take K'tau. In both cases an Asgard vessel already on station had destroyed the attempted invasions although it had caused a great deal of strife on Galar.

Although the Galarans were slightly ahead of Earth overall technologically the world had only just managed to get their own stargate program operational. Galar had only been making tentative first steps into exploring the galaxy when several gigantic ships appeared above them and fought a battle and the government there deciding to go public in response was proving to be a major mistake so far. The people of Galar were panicking that they were defenceless themselves against these goa'uld and were therefore utterly reliant on the protection of an alien race. The press and certain political groups were also kicking up a storm about the previous suppression of knowledge of the existence of alien technology which was destabilising the government still further. After the Asgard apologetically told the government of Galar that they were still bound by the terms of the Protected Planets treaty, and that therefore the High Council couldn't provide them with a means for self-defence, the Galarans had begged them to reconsider. After some prevarication the Asgard again told them categorically no to a request for advanced shields and weapons _but_ if while they were randomly dialling symbols on their stargate they were to put in this particular set and sent a radio transmission through saying hello they might be able to obtain what they were after from another advanced human world. Although they tried to abide by the letter of the law the Asgard were not above being slightly underhanded however, they had been basically bluffing the goa'uld for centuries after all.

After the usual debate and attempted political points scoring the IOA approved the negotiation with the System Lords and they were instructed to travel to a neutral planet where they would be met by SG-7 and an X-COM Squad before being escorted to Earth. It had been decided that a show of strength was warranted so the world chosen for the rendezvous was one close to Earth and when the delegation arrived to meet their Tau'ri escorts they found themselves beneath the shadow of USAF _Prometheus_ hovering above. Once they had embarked on the next stage of their journey, stepping through the stargate to Earth, _Prometheus_ would immediately head home too at full speed to retake its role as a guardship but it was felt that reminding the System Lords that the humans had hyperdrive capable capital ships and therefore offensive as well as defensive ability was important.

Colonel Rodrigues was commanding the X-COM squad that met the goa'uld under the shadow of the BC-303 and it was evident from the reaction of Camulus that he recognised the name although he didn't say so. Rodrigues, now referred to by the goa'uld as the First Prime of the Tau'ri Warlord Sharp of Canada, had bloodily defeated the garrison and blown up many buildings on Camulodunon earning the wrath of Camulus to add to everyone else he had already riled as he obeyed his bosses general orders to "Kill, maim, loot and pillage". The price on his head was already starting to catch up with that on the likes of Daniel Jackson, if not yet rivalling the huge sum in shesh'ta that would be paid out to whoever killed either the infamous O'Neill or the despised shol'va Teal'c and provided proof to the High Council of the System Lords.

Whilst Camulus was clearly becoming angry, and Lord Yu and his ever-present First-Prime Oshu seemed to be completely ignoring the Tau'ri as the chappa'ai was dialled for Earth, Morrigan the third of the goa'uld representing the System Lords couldn't help but be intrigued by the ship above their heads and also the human warriors, particularly those wearing the mechanical armour they occasionally wore into battle. The design aesthetic of the vessel they called _Prometheus_ was horrible of course, and ranks of polished Jaffa might have made more of a show, but the Tau'ri were an intriguing society and it was hard not to have a grudging admiration for a skilled foe she thought. When they were finally crushed she would have to try and capture as many of them as she could and add them to her armies she decided, the Jaffa of Morrigan had always shown more loyalty than most and this was because she took pains to see to their well-being. It wasn't done out of compassion of course, it was simply born from a realisation that they would fight harder and be less likely to desert her if she didn't treat them as being quite so disposable.

To Weirs annoyance the IOA had insisted that although she would lead the negotiations Commander Sharp would be present also, if mainly in an effort to cash in on the propaganda campaign. He and General Hammond, another name well-known to the goa'uld as a senior Tau'ri soldier, would mostly be there as a reminder that Earth had a worrisome track record of beating the odds and defeating the goa'uld even before they enjoyed their apparent recent leap in military capability.

As Weir waited at the end of the ramp at the SGC stargate, Sharp and Hammond flanking her a step behind indicating she was in charge, Daniel was watching from the control room above. Sam along with Teal'c and Lyudmila were probably close to arriving in the Ida galaxy on the old Beliskner Class ship called the _Sigrdrífa_ which had collected them by now. Apparently the Asgard used the few Beliskners they still had in service as bulk transport ships these days, and after dropping off Heimdall and her stuff on the new Asgard capital world of Orilla it would then ferry the SG-1 members on the remaining short hop to the Hala system where Thor and his temporary command the brand new science vessel _Daniel Jackson_ (when he found out the ships name Daniel was grateful not to be going) were doing very unpleasant things to a sun.

The now very pregnant Doctor Frasier, she had steadfastly refused to get married until after the birth because she didn't want to have an album of wedding photographs where she was clearly knocked-up, was stood beside Daniel having declined the offer of a seat from Master Sergeant Harriman. As the gate activated with an incoming wormhole and the SG-7 IDC transmission was confirmed Daniel noted Frasier's expression. 'Going to miss all the excitement?' he asked.

'I'm going on maternity leave, I'm not quitting the program' Janet replied. 'I'll be back on active duty before you know it' she said. 'I already raised one child whilst working here, this one will just be smaller for a while' she told him.

'At least Cassie doesn't need so much looking after these days' Daniel noted with a smile.

'No I just stress about her more' Janet replied.

Daniel chuckled as the iris became to open. 'So what's it like having a certain Commander living under your roof when he's not at the Omega Site?' he asked her.

'It's not so bad, he veers between fussing and ignoring me completely if he's focused on something else though' Janet replied. 'I really need to get him to stop taking all those drugs' she opined. 'I didn't get so much as four words out of him last night, he was stuck on a computer most of the evening.'

'Yes he said this morning he was doing in-depth research into how to handle negotiations' Daniel replied, as the three System Lords stepped out through the gate with Oshu following behind his master.

Janet laughed. 'He surfed the net for maybe three-quarters of an hour and spent the rest of the time playing some computer game' she told him.

Elizabeth Weir stepped forward smiling. 'Welcome to Earth' she began. 'Allow me to introduce...'

'We are not interested in your name' Camulus interrupted her curtly.

Weir maintain her poise. 'Really?' she responded unperturbed, 'I find it generally helps so much...'

'We prefer to present our offer, so we can spend as brief a time as possible on this planet' Morrigan cut her off this time.

Ever the professional diplomat the demeanour of the System Lords didn't faze Weir at all and she was about to simply direct them in the direction of the conference room when Commander Sharp took two steps forward bringing himself to her side, glaring at each of the Goa'uld in turn and his hand now placed on the holster of his pistol in an obvious threat. 'You might not want to know our names' he growled, 'but this is Doctor Elizabeth Weir head of this facility and our lead negotiator and I am Commander Russell Sharp of X-COM' he continued. 'While you are here I want you to always keep one thing at the forefront of your minds' he told them. 'OUR WORDS ARE BACKED BY NAQUADRIA WEAPONS' he thundered.

Whilst it was taking all of Weir's willpower not to sink her face into her hands Daniel turned to Janet in the control room overlooking the scene. 'I've been known to while away a few hours playing the Civilization games too' he admitted, 'never thought to apply anything taken from them in real life though' he added as the System Lords began to recover from their shock at being talked to that way.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

___It's mentioned in chapter 39 of **XSGCOM: Mirror Image** that there were foreign troops helping the Optricans pacify Bedrosia by this point. Langarans with Psi-Amps and Mind Probes would be a viable tactic in crushing the resistance to Optrican annexation of the territory. __Colonel O'Neill is still inside the Ancient Stasis Pod in Antartica. We haven't reached the point where the Asgard find they need him urgently yet and the IOA and others are hoping they can extract all that knowledge from his mind so they won't let the Asgard get him out of there and mind-wipe all the information. Robert Kinsey remains the Vice President as Henry Hayes didn't ask for his resignation at the time Anubis attacked Earth as happened in canon. With ties to the IOA and US Senate, his position in the Executive Branch of the American government and his murky links with the NID he's more powerful and influential than ever. __Able Archer 83 was a real event that could have accidentally triggered WWIII. Having a combination of something similar occuring again plus a major screw up with orbital weaponry developed by several nations after the Strategic Defence Initiative of the 1980's seemed a better cover-story than anything they tried in Stargate which never seemed to explain quite how they managed to get away with all the EMP caused by the Goa'uld Busters in episode 2:01 The Serpents Lair or indeed the loss of the Nimitz Battle Group to Anubis and all those huge alien ships being blown to hell in orbit in episode 7:22 Lost City. The Outer Space Treaty would prohibit nuclear weapons in space including bomb-pumped X-Ray Lasers and they actually used the Antarctic Treaty which says that bases there can only be for peaceful purposes as a plot point in Stargate on a couple of occasions. __The Eurondan Fusion Reactor design was powered by Heavy Water, it was also them who developed the drug Beta-Cantin. The Eurondans were only about a century ahead of Earth so introducing that level of advancement is going to cause less waves than Optrican, Hebridan or Tollan tech for example. The Altairan power-pack which the android copies of SG-1 used contained a lot of charge for its size, fusion reactors plus those things would revolutionise things pretty fast! Tretonin had the nasty side effect of destroying your own immune system but imagine what you could do with it in treating leukemia, AIDS or numerous other diseases. The Ashen had a vaccine for cancer (it wouldn't be wise to introduce their vaccine for aging yet however) the anaesthetic salve which the Shavadai of Simarka traded to SG-1 in episode 1:04 Emancipation would likely be developed and Rashna was the drug that the goa'uld addicted Aris Boch's people to seen in episode 3:07 Deadman Switch )._

___We last saw Jebanna in chapter 31 of **XSGCOM: Mirror Image** when Harry Maybourne was telling tall tales (humour set up a while ago you might say). __The ability of an elerium crystal to focus a laser beam in that way comes from **X-COM: Interceptor**. One of the first upgrades you can research is a Heavy Laser Cannon for your fighters utilising that ability that has a lower rate-of-fire but a much more powerful beam. Using a liquid-naquadah power cell to trickle-charge the power-pack of the L2-A3 when not in use is just a cute idea I thought. __Making laser weapons and selling them for a profit was the best way to keep yourself funded in **X-COM: UFO Defense**. Instead of just selling to governments on Earth here they'll be selling to other worlds too._ _As for tearing around in something much like a Desert Patrol Vehicle with a gatling-staff and an X-COM Laser Cannon mounted on top it's just supposed to be cool (and be better than walking)._

___In episode 8:01 New Order the High Council of the System Lords sent Lord Yu, Camulus and Amaterasu to Earth to negotiate an alliance against Baal who had stepped up to contest domination of the galaxy after Anubis was defeated along with his fleet at the end of Season 7. Since Amaterasu is an ally of Baal by this time in the XSGCOM universe I've had Morrigan take her place. __The Protected Planets Treaty pledged the System Lords not to attack some 27 worlds under Asgard protection. One of these, K'tau, was seen in episode 5:05 Red Sky, and another Galar was featured in episode 9:12 Collateral Damage. Galar was likely just above Earth technologically had been starting to send exploration missions through the gate in early 2004. __The last we saw of the Replicators they were trapped in a time-dilation bubble on the former Asgard world of Hala. The Asgard had decided to deal with the problem for good by artificially collapsing Hala's sun into a black hole therefore sucking Hala and the Replicators into oblivion. Here Thor has offered to let SG-1 witness the final defeat of their joint enemy as the process nears completion, SG-1 saved the Asgard from the things a few times after all and he would know the Tau'ri would have an acaedmic interest. In XSGCOM the Asgard geneticist Heimdall has been living at Area 51 for quite some time researching Loki's creations such as the Sectoids seeking a cure for the Asgard genetic problems. __The Civilization games are the only ones I've spent more time playing than any of the X-COM ones, I couldn't resist having Sharp say that line, it's originally about Nuclear Weapons and is a dramatic warning used in diplomatic contacts when nations have developed to the atomic age!_


	2. Chapter 2

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2004**

A look from Weir as they left the gate-room had been enough to tell Commander Sharp his presence during negotiations with the System Lords was neither required nor welcome and since the IOA in their infinite wisdom had placed her in charge of the SGC he took the hint and left them to it, deciding to seek out Janet to ask if she wanted him to pickup takeout food before heading to her place later.

The Goa'uld had already collected themselves again by the time they sat down at the table, any temporary disruption in their sense of innate superiority and the certainty that they were the dominant party in the discussions due to Sharps less than veiled threat having faded fast. As well as Weir being there to represent Earth both General Hammond and Daniel were also present to act as advisors, and in Hammond's case as an observer too now he was based out of Washington DC.

Having both Sharp and Hammond at the Mountain, if only for a short while, was not helping Weir in her efforts to be seen and accepted as being in charge. The overwhelming majority of personnel still regarded General Hammond as being the man that should still be running the SGC and of the rest most were X-COM and thought that Sharp should be, or at least that known liberal do-gooder Weir certainly _shouldn't_ be. It was an awkward situation to be in but at least this particular day's task was something that was within her demonstrated skills-set, diplomacy, bargaining and negotiation was where Elizabeth Weir truly shined and she was determined to damn well prove it.

Despite the fact that Lord Yu was the senior System Lord in attendance, being not only the most venerable and established but also still possessing the greatest quantity of military assets, Camulus seemed to be leading the discussions from the goa'uld side. 'Your unexpected defeat of Anubis has created an unstable situation among the System Lords. In order to avoid open war, we came to an agreement to divide his territories and his armies evenly' he told the Tau'ri.

'How civilised of you' Daniel replied.

'Yes' Camulus replied, ignoring the sarcasm. 'Unfortunately, one among us has broken that agreement' he noted.

'Baal' Weir replied, 'we know that he and his allies Bastet, Kali and Amatarasu have been starting to launch attacks on the other goa'uld after licking their wounds inflicted by Anubis' she said.

Camulus nodded. 'Although Anubis did press Baal very hard before he launched his attack on Earth his shipyards emerged unscathed and he has proven able to rebuild his fleets in short order on previous occasions' he said, 'most notably after the war with Apophis' he added.

'Even so according to our intelligence Anubis and Loki crippled much of both Baals offensive striking force and that of his allies' Weir noted. 'Anubis knew we would destroy quite a lot of his fleet attacking Earth directly, even if he defeated us, and he didn't want Baal on his back straight away taking advantage.'

Morrigan looked from Camulus to Weir. 'True' she agreed, 'but although his fleet is still a long way from recovering its losses he has obtained a considerable edge over the rest of us in ground combat to compensate' she told Weir.

'Which is?' Weir queried.

'Thoth, the scientist who created the Kull Warriors for Anubis, offered his services to Baal once it became known that his previous master was dead' Camulus explained. 'He also likely bought with him the Ancient and Asgard technology Anubis had used to create his most advanced ships so we can expect to see the newest model Al'kesh and Ha'tak vessels appearing in Baals service in time too' he told her. 'We have already faced the new Deathgliders with their shields and rapid-fire weapons.'

'Baal has Kull Warriors now?' Daniel asked in surprise.

'Small numbers so far but more every day' Morrigan replied. 'He also has another type of abomination flying his Deathgliders' she continued, 'one originally created by the rogue Asgard Loki' she said.. With those Orac at his command, Baal has tipped the balance of power in his favour.'

'We call the pilots Aereons' General Hammond said with distaste. The genetically-engineered super-pilots with their cybernetic upgrades were generally thought of as being the Kull Warriors of the skies. Placed in the cockpit of an upgraded Deathglider they went through squadrons of Jaffa pilots much like the Kull went through Jaffa infantry, they simply outclassed the opposition.

'Kull and Aereons' Weir commented. 'Thoth is really earning his keep' she said. 'I imagine he thought that Baal would be the highest bidder?' she suggested.

'It is likely he was offered a small domain of his own' Camulus replied, 'the promise of a System or two carved from the territory of one of the defeated System Lords after Baals victory' he said. 'Nerus has a similar arrangement' he noted.

Lord Yu beckoned his First Prime closer and whispered something in his ear. 'My Master points out that with both Nerus and Thoth now in his service Baal is likely to increase his technological superiority over the other System Lords' Oshu spoke up. 'Although they are known to dislike each other personally their rivalry may spur them to greater heights of inventiveness.'

'Some among us have already spoken of capitulation' Camulus told the Tau'ri.

'Well, this is all very interesting I'm sure' Weir replied, 'but I fail to see what it has to do with us' she added.

Yu whispered to Oshu again. 'My master wishes to say, it is well known the Tau'ri possess powerful new weapons of many types' the Jaffa said, including a weapon of the Ancients.'

'Yes' Daniel confirmed. 'We used the Ancient weapon to destroy the remainder of Anubis's Fleet' he said.

'By means of these weapons, Baal can be prevented from conquering the galaxy' Oshu said.

Camulus looked Weir in the eyes. 'If Baal defeats us, how long do you think it will be before he turns his attention to you?' he asked rhetorically.

Weir looked unconcerned, the goa'uld had no idea the only person who they knew for sure could operate the Control Chair that launched and guided the Ancient Drones was currently in stasis. 'If he does he'll suffer the same fate as Anubis' she replied dismissively.

'Perhaps' Morrigan conceded. 'But there are other worlds in this galaxy without the luxury of such advanced defences' she pointed out.

'Meaning?' General Hammond asked.

'Although the Asgard sent vessels to defend a small number of other worlds which were under attack we noticed that they did not dispatch a warship to Earth' Morrigan observed. 'It is said that the Asgard Fleet is overstretched and cannot even defend all the worlds listed under the Protected Planets Treaty let alone interfere with the goa'uld on a wider scale' she said.

'They didn't send a ship here because they knew we could beat Anubis without them' Weir responded, deliberately adopting a condescending smile. 'Ask the goa'uld who attacked Galar and and K'Tau if the Asgard still defend worlds that can't protect themselves... assuming any of them made it home alive to ask' she added, her smile becoming a smirk.

'But could you or they stand up to the goa'uld united by a single leader?' Camulus asked. 'Anubis already destroyed the myth of Asgard invincibility and others say that Loki demonstrates that the Asgard are not even as unified as we generally believed' he said. 'You defeated thirty Ha'tak, could you stand up to three-hundred?' he queried.

Elizabeth Weir laughed. 'Yes but don't expect me to say how many motherships could overwhelm us, that's still a classified military secret' she bluffed. In reality far few than three hundred goa'uld Ha'tak could do the job she knew, for one thing the Goa'uld could just drop out of hyperspace all around the planet and open fire on the surface destroying every major city before the Drones could destroy them or drive them off.

'Three hundred would take us years to clean up though' Daniel told Weir, playing along. 'Although it could be a financial opportunity' he continued thoughtfully, 'Is there a market for Ha'tak spares?' he asked Camulus. 'We've already got a few million tons of them if you want to make an offer.'

'Your overconfidence will be your undoing' Morrigan warned.

'You must see that it is better for the Tau'ri that Baal does not dominate the galaxy' Camulus told Weir, 'we know you did battle against Apophis and then Anubis to prevent such an outcome' he continued. 'Even if you can defend your world, and the Asgard can protect the other twenty-six planets named by the Treaty, thousands of others have no such defence.'

'You see yourselves as the champions of your race do you not?' Morrigan asked Weir. 'Would you stand idly bye and let countless humans die during Baals war of conquest?'

'What is it exactly that you want?' Weir asked.

'We ask for Tau'ri military intervention against Baal' Camulus replied.

'So basically our soldiers dying to defend your worlds, or were you hoping to be supplied with our superior weapons?' Weir replied, making sure to stress "superior" as she said it.

'We were hoping that you would utilise your weapons to destroy Baal's Fleet and his shipyards' Morrigan told her. 'If we had complete orbital superiority then the Kull become mere insects to be crushed at our leisure.'

'Insects that still have a nasty sting' Daniel noted.

'If Baal cannot protect the nest does that matter?' Camulus responded.

Weir was tempted to continue with the metaphor herself but the fact was they couldn't use the Ancient Drones against Baal, at least not yet, so it was perhaps best to end this charade before someone realised what amounted to little more than bluff. 'Perhaps when this facility was run by our military they would have accepted your proposal but I'm a diplomat and see this as primarily an internal goa'uld political dispute' she said.

Lord Yu was becoming angry, he slammed his fist down on the table. 'Enough' he bellowed, 'with each passing moment Anubis becomes more powerful' he exclaimed.

The other goa'uld looked at him, frowning. 'You mean Baal' Daniel reminded him, at least the senile old bastard hadn't said Apophis, that was _two_ wars ago he thought to himself.

'My Master is fatigued' Oshu said hurriedly, 'we request a short adjournment' he said.

Yu turned to his First Prime. 'Silence' he ordered. 'I need no adjournment' he told the others.

Camulus decided to get the negotiations back on track. 'We know you have a formidable defensive weapon, plus some limited ability to launch offensives against your enemies' he addressed Weir, 'we are prepared to offer hyperdrive engines that are likely more advanced than...'

'We already have faster hyperdrives than you' Weir interrupted him. 'What else have you got to offer?' she asked.

Morrigan frowned and looked at Camulus doubtfully. 'Perhaps they obtained the design used by Apophis somehow?' she theorised to him.

'No we've got a hyperdrive that is faster than _any_ vessel used by the goa'uld' Weir told them. It was technically true but at the moment she was also accurate in using the singular and she neglected to mention the severely diminished operational life-span.

'The Asgard gave you their hyperdrive technology?' Camulus queried, 'that could be seen as violating the Protected Planets Treaty' he pointed out.

'It's not an Asgard design it's a goa'uld design upgraded to Ancient specifications' Weir told them, 'you didn't think we only obtained one of their weapon systems did you?' she asked rhetorically, letting the goa'uld jump to the conclusion that the Tau'ri might not be awash with Ancient devices. The IOA had cleared her to reveal the information regarding the upgraded drive, they wanted the System Lords to know Earth had a means to almost instantly retaliate against any future attacks. Deterrence rather than the immediate pre-emptive strike Commander Sharp continued to advocate.

'Would you would be interested in naquadah supplies as payment then' Morrigan queried.

'We've so much of that stockpiled we've cut back production, so not really' Weir replied, her voice sounding almost bored.

Camulus pursed his lips. 'You are familiar with the sarcophagus' he said, 'with those you could...'

'We make our own, actually we're working on a better one than yours because the original Ancient Device it was based upon is now in our possession' Daniel told them.

Camulus was starting to get annoyed now. 'Staff Cannon...' he began.

'How many do you want?' Hammond asked. 'We've got warehouses full of captured goa'uld weaponry' he told him. This was fun, he thought.

Morrigan had a thought. 'This Ancient weapon' she said, 'such an advanced piece of technology' she continued. 'The power requirements must be enormous. Even simple maintenance must be extremely difficult, given your limited capabilities' she surmised.

'We manage' Weir responded.

'Of course, we believe you' Morrigan replied. 'But I wonder what Baal would think if he were to receive intelligence that the weapon was temporarily out of commission' she asked. 'Would he consider it wise to attack the Tau'ri before they had grown too strong with their other weapons?'

'He would have to take advantage of the window of opportunity' Camulus responded. 'The Tau'ri would be forced to destroy him.'

'And we would have to give them nothing' Morrigan concurred.

'We didn't actually want anything you were offering' Daniel noted. 'Baal would never fall for that anyway. He knows how desperate you are. I think he might find this information a little bit convenient' he added.

'Perhaps, but you leave us few option' Camulus replied.

Weir didn't like where this was heading, time for another tactic, she thought. 'Okay we'll do it' she told the goa'uld.

Daniel raised his eyebrows. 'We will?' he asked in confusion.

'In exchange we want Baal's territory' she declared.

The three System Lords looked at each other. 'All of it?' Camulus responded.

'Well, that's the way it works right?' Weir checked. 'When one System Lord kills another, he takes over his armies, his fleet, his planets. That's what we want' she said. 'Everything in Baal's possession' she told them.

'The High Council would never agree' Camulus replied, then took a deep breath letting it back out slowly. 'Much of his territory consists of Systems that formerly belonged to Ra and Apophis' he said, 'they are the closest to Earth' he said. 'We might be prepared to cede you that part of his domain upon his defeat' he bargained.

This was certainly not the reaction Weir had been expecting and she almost choked but instead she managed to maintain a calm demeanour. 'So we do the work and get left the scraps from your table' she replied, 'not good enough' she said.

'You don't have the ships to hold more than a fraction of Baal's current holdings' Morrigan stated. 'As Camulus said none of the nearby systems ever belonged to any of the High Council so we would not be losing face if they came into your control' she said.

'We will accept the Tau'ri ownership of every system within... fifty light-years of this one' Camulus told Weir. The other System Lords would probably agree to that.

'Five hundred' Weir replied, she had simply multiplied his offer by ten.

'Ridiculous' Yu responded.

'That would include some worlds belonging to other members of the High Council' Camulus told her.

'We're reasonable people so two hundred and fifty light years, take it or leave it' Weir told them

Camulus grimaced. 'We will have to consult with the others' he said. 'Take us to the chappa'ai' he told Weir.

After the System Lords left the room, Hammond following to keep an eye on them, Daniel remained behind with Weir. 'I assume you were trying to make a demand they wouldn't accept without sounding like you were doing that' Daniel asked.

'Yes' Weir replied, 'I was caught off-guard when they offered us any territory at all' she said. 'How much of the galaxy did I ask for anyway?' she wondered.

'Well thanks to spending an awful lot of time with Sam I know the Milky Way is a hundred-thousand light-years across so not much I guess?'

Bill Lee walked in wearing a white Lab Coat and an amused smile, he was carrying a clipboard. 'I hope you don't mind me intruding' he said. 'Camulus is communicating with the other System Lords via an encrypted signal sent through the gate, he's typing the message into some gadget he had with him, and we've been decoding it almost right away thanks to information we got on goa'uld ciphers from the Tok'ra' he told them. 'So far they don't seem happy' he said. 'I was also asked to work out how many stars lie within two-hundred and fifty light-years of Earth and I thought you'd be interested' he added.

'Hundreds?' Weir wondered.

'No, it's a few more than that' Lee told her with a chuckle. 'Some of them are binary stars of course so it's not quite this many systems but we're talking over a quarter of a million' he announced.

'A quarter of a million' Weir repeated slowly before sighing with relief. 'Okay, they'll never agree to that' she said.

'Only a very small proportion have a stargate though' Lee noted. 'In the galaxy as a whole there are hundreds of billions of stars so a quarter-million isn't actually a lot.'

'So what do we do if they _do_ agree to your terms then?' Daniel asked Weir nervously.

'You mean other than me trying to explain to the UN and the IOA that not only have I gotten us involved in another major war as an official ally of the High Council of the System Lords but that somehow I've accidentally turned Earth into an imperial power that rules over a quarter-million stars?' Weir replied.

Daniel looked thoughtful. 'You need to work on your phrasing' he advised. 'Though on the plus side you may have earned the undying gratitude of X-COM' he told her.

Weir blinked. 'Suddenly I feel so dirty' she said bleakly.

* * *

**Hala System – Galaxy of Ida – June 2004**

'It's very beautiful' Lyudmila Andianov observed as she watched the planets of the Hala System continue to break up and spiral to their fates in the newly created black hole which had once been their sun.

'Beautiful?' Teal'c queried.

'In the way that a desert or a polar wasteland can be' Andianov explained. 'The dark beauty of desolation' she added.

'I thought Russians only got poetic about tractors' Samantha Carter joked.

Andianov looked away from the scene of destruction. 'You are thinking of Ukrainians' she replied.

They were on the bridge of the Asgard Science Vessel _Daniel Jackson_ with Thor sat in his chair monitoring the situation as the Hala System was wrought apart. The Beliskner Class ship _Sigrdrífa_ had dropped them and their supplies off with Thor and then headed back to Orilla while the _Daniel Jackson_ moved closer to the Black Hole. Now they were enjoying the sight of the Replicators being finished off once and for all, even the normally placid and civilised Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet had a definite aura of primitive vengefulness about him as Hala died, taking the killer von-neuman machines with it. His people had been fighting them for century after century and they had killed many of his friends and colleagues over the years so perhaps a little atavistic barbarism was understandable.

Hala itself was breaking apart thanks to the gravitational sheer. The planets which had been closer to the sun were already nothing but debris, falling inexorably towards the event horizon of the artificially created singularity, and the former Asgard colony was about to share their fate. You had to give the Asgard credit for not dealing in half measures, they expected the Replicators would eventually escape from the time-dilation field which trapped them and so they were making sure to pre-empt that situation by putting the Replicators somewhere they couldn't escape from. Once you were sucked into a Black Hole there was no getting back out, for that matter the time-dilation effects of even getting too close made the field they were already bound by look pretty unimpressive.

'This is strange' Thor said, his expression as close to a frown as his race developed.

'I guess you're not referring to the fact we're watching the accretion disk of a star where the gravity was artificially increased to collapse it' Carter replied.

'No, we've done this before to deal with a star we feared was close to supernova and which was too close to an inhabited system' Thor replied. 'Although the planet is breaking apart it seems that a large number of Replicators have managed to come together in a coherent mass that is not spiralling towards the event horizon' he said, pressing a control to turn the display console he was looking at towards Carter.

Carter shrugged. 'Well, even if they can withstand the gravitational force without being torn apart there's no way they could ever….' she began.

'Interesting' Thor cut her off.

'What is it?' Carter asked him.

'The mass of replicator blocks have begun moving further away from the event horizon' Thor told her.

'How is that possible?' Carter queried.

'They have the time dilation device' Thor replied. 'I do not know exactly how, but they seem to have used it to counteract the gravitational effects that should be pulling them in' he explained as best he could.

'Frightening' Carter responded. 'Not only that they can do that, but that you don't know how' she said.

'I agree' Thor replied. 'They are picking up speed. Scans indicate the blocks have formed together' he told the humans.

'Into what?' Teal'c asked.

'A ship' Thor replied. 'They are escaping. Their course indicates they are headed this way' he said.

'Have you ever seen anything like it?' Carter asked the Asgard.

'No, and it is doubtful my ship's weapons will be effective against it' Thor replied. 'This science vessel is not even as heavily armed as the Beliskner I once commanded' he continued. 'And we retired those as front-line warships because they could not effectively fight the Replicators.'

'We should probably get out of here then, huh?' Carter suggested seriously. 'Can you jump into hyperspace?'

'We must clear the gravitational distortion field of the black hole first' Thor replied, starting to activate other controls, the ship turning as he did so. 'They are also interfering with subspace communications.'

The _Daniel Jackson_ began to pick up speed, accelerating against the gravity holding it back. The Replicator vessel was gaining fast however, as it closed it fired something at them.

'They have fired upon us' Thor announced.

'Can it penetrate your shields?' Carter asked him.

'It is more than likely' Thor replied evenly. That's it, he thought to himself, from now on I'm never going anywhere unless I'm aboard an O'Neill Class ship he decided bitterly. 'Brace for impact' he warned.

The _Daniel Jackson_ shook and the sound of an almighty distant thump towards the stern of the ship indicated the Replicator weapon had gone right through the shield and hit them.

Thor looked at the damage control computer display that was urgently trying to attract his attention. 'The hull is breached' he told the humans.

'Where' Carter asked him.

Thor activated a control that projected an internal schematic of the ship. 'The damage is minimal' he said. 'The projectile was likely composed of Replicators' he continued. 'They are not visible to my ship's scanners. This is how they have boarded Asgard ships in the past' he added.

'Can you use the shields to prevent decompression in those sections?' Carter asked him.

'Yes' Thor replied.

'I think we need to repel boarders' Carter told Teal'c and Andianov.

'We are not suitably armed' Teal'c pointed out.

Carter turned to Thor. 'Have you got the schematics for our projectile weapons?' she asked. 'Can you make copies?'

'Yes' Thor replied. 'I have an extensive database of Earth weaponry, its effectiveness against Replicators ensured my people made sure to have them available even though we are not well-suited to carry them or handle the recoil' he said.

'Three AA-12 Automatic shotguns, six 32 round drums of buckshot per weapon' Carter told him.

'They are being created' Thor replied, pointing to a device where the first AA-12 was already appearing, seemingly from mid air. Asgard science was fiendishly advanced which was unfortunate given that the Replicators had assimilated so much of it.

'This trip is turning out to be far more enjoyable than I feared it would' Andianov said brightly, moving to collect the weapon.

As they headed back through the ship the sounds of Replicators scurrying about grew louder and more distinct. 'I think they may be inside the walls' Teal'c told the others, placing his ear against a bulkhead.

'We need Replicator traps' Andianov opined, 'do you think a large mousetrap with a piece of high technology as bait instead of cheese would work?' she asked, eyes scanning the environment, weapon shouldered.

'I've baited them before' Carter replied, 'of course that was with a whole ship' she noted.

The sound of a torrent of metal feet clinking against the deck up ahead had all three taking up firing positions as a large number of Replicators appeared from around a junction in the corridor. 'Not all in the walls then' Carter observed. 'Open fire' she ordered.

Firing at a rate of three hundred shells per minute the AA-12 firing buckshot had proven to be an extremely effective way of dealing with Replicators. The spread of the shot meant that each shotgun shell could be relied upon to shatter several of the things at once and being hosed over the tide of metallic bugs surging towards them the trio of fully-automatic shotguns was more than enough to effectively deal with the things, blocks sent in all directions.

The recoil was fierce and Carter knew her shoulder was going to ache like hell later but she had to admit that the Sergeant was right about this being fun, she thought. Ejecting the first drum which was now empty and starting to load another, which had been hooked to her belt, Carter saw that Teal'c was already firing his second drum whilst Andianov had been firing only aimed single shots, albeit still quite rapidly, and was still on her first magazine. The Russian was carefully picking her shots, taking out the Replicators that were ahead of the main mass that Teal'c was firing into, none shall pass, Carter thought with a grin as she started firing again.

Tactically the Replicators were not very skilled. They rarely had to be since they always had weight of numbers and for the most part their foes had employed ineffectually energy weapons, but as they skittered towards the human soldiers and were blasted into their component pieces Teal'c couldn't help but wonder if the Tau'ri considered fighting Jaffa being much like this? Certainly the goa'uld cared as little for their slave warriors as the Replicator collective cared for each individual within their ranks and even today some of the System Lords had yet to recognise that attempting to charge down Tau'ri automatic weapons was simply insane. 'The enemy numbers are decreasing Major Carter' he told her.

'We should try and flush these blocks into space somehow' Carter replied as the attack petered out. The last few were shot down and then Teal'c walked forward and scattered the piles of blocks to make it harder for them to reform.

Carter looked around. 'Thor should be able to vent this section into space once we are clear' she said.

'I can still hear more of them' Andianov said as the sound of gunfire echoing down the corridors ceased.

'We'll get rid of these first and then come back and finish off the rest' Carter responded.

A single replicator appeared from behind some ducting looking like it was about to attack Carter who was nearest, before anyone could fire however she disappeared in a flash that was identical to an Asgard transporter beam. Andianov took out the replicator before Teal'c could and he took out his radio. 'Thor, it is Teal'c. Major Carter was beamed away. Is she in your presence?' he asked.

'_I did not do it. The Replicators must have her_ ' Thor replied.

More of them appeared, though far fewer than earlier and pushing the fate of Major Carter from their minds for the moment Teal'c and Andianov began engaging them. They had to deal with the boarders before they could consider other things.

Clear of the sub-space distortions caused by the Black Hole the replicator vessel jumped into hyperspace. Thor vented the areas of the ship Teal'c told him to and as the blocks were sucked into space along with the atmosphere in the stern compartments the two remaining members of SG-1 aboard returned to the bridge.

'We have eliminated all the replicators we could locate' Teal'c told the Asgard.

'There is no way of knowing if there are more. The replicator ship has entered hyperspace' Thor replied.

'Can you follow?' Teal'c asked.

'Yes' Thor confirmed, powering up the Neutrino-Ion Generators and bringing his FTL engines on-line to give chase. As the Daniel Jackson pursued the replicators into hyperspace Thor told the humans that the sections of the ship he had vented were now sealed again and being pressurised. Andianov told him she would go back and search for any remaining bugs whilst Teal'c remained on the bridge.

'Do you know its destination?' Teal'c asked Thor as they followed the enemy ship.

'Before you destroyed them, the replicators managed to access the ship's computer' Thor replied. 'They learned the location of Orilla, the planet where we are attempting to rebuild the Asgard civilisation. I assumed it would be their first target' he said.

'What is your reasoning?' Teal'c queried.

'Orilla is rich in neutronium, which is a key element in Asgard technology' Thor explained. 'It is also essential for the creation of human-form replicators' he noted.

Carter had found herself onboard the replicator ship. As she made her way along a corridor entirely faced with replicator blocks she reached out and gingerly touched them, being reminded of the surface of Hala after it had been consumed by the machines.

A familiar figure seemed to simply step out of the wall next to her. 'Major Carter' the human-form replicator known as Fifth greeted her.

'Fifth' Carter replied, this could be good or bad news she thought.

'I imagine you never expected to see me again' Fifth remarked, his expression was not friendly.

'Look, I'm sorry we left you behind, but we had to do it' Carter told him. 'We couldn't risk the others getting out. You know what they're capable of. I know you must be upset' she tried to sooth him.

'Upset?' Fifth responded as if that was the understatement of the epoch.

'We betrayed you, it must have hurt' Carter continued, trying to placate him, trying to reach out to his humanity, assuming he had some. 'See, that's the part of you that's most like us. The human part of you. I understand how you feel' she said.

Fifth moved towards her, Carter nervously backing up as far as she could as he approached. 'No you don't! You couldn't' he replied. 'But I promise, you will' he added, smirking as he pushed his hand into her forehead.

As the _Daniel Jackson_ gradually closed on the replicator ship, her hyperdrive marginally faster than the one propelling the other vessel Thor was already making plans.

'How can we stop them?' Teal'c asked.

'My ship's weapons will not function in hyperspace' Thor replied. 'Much like the shields' he continued, 'however, in close proximity, the self destruct may be sufficient to eliminate both ships. I am sorry, but we have no choice' he said. 'If the human-form replicators reach Orilla, they will have the resources to replicate many thousands of times. We cannot allow that to happen.

'So be it' Teal'c replied, he had no doubt that Sergeant Andianov would concur.

Just as they neared the other ship however the _Daniel Jackson_ began to lose ground again. 'We are slowing down. Something is interfering with the controls' Thor announced. 'The auxiliary control console, outside the engine room' he said.

Teal'c took up his radio again. 'Sergeant I believe we may have yet more Replicators aboard' he said.

By the time they dealt with the last of them the replicator ship was too far ahead for the Daniel Jackson to catch up. It would be now for the Asgard Fleet to try and stop them in orbit above Orilla.

As the replicator ship emerged from hyperspace it was engaged by six O'Neill Class warships and was quickly destroyed but large sections continued on into the atmosphere. By the time Thor arrived with the _Daniel Jackson_ the replicators had reached the surface and were already increasing in number, starting to take over the capital city itself.

Thor could only think of one place where he might find some means of winning the battle. It was a good thing that although the science vessel was far from a match for an Asgard Warship in firepower it certainly did not lack for speed compared to its larger brethren, he set course for Earth at full speed and hoped Orilla would still be worth saving by the time he got back.

* * *

**Orilla – Galaxy of Ida – June 2004**

Penigal leader of the Asgard High Council had no idea what Thor was doing but Orilla was going to fall and the Asgard were not well suited or properly equipped to fight this kind of war. There were replicators in the city, more of them in the surrounding forests and since having the fleet blast the region into oblivion from orbit wasn't much of an option he called for urgent suggestions.

Heimdall only recently returned from Earth immediately made one, the Asgard might not be able to fight this kind of war but they knew a race that could. After a moments deliberation Pengal ordered Aegir the senior officer commanding the Asgard Fleet above Orilla to immediately depart with his ship the _Valhalla_ for the galaxy the humans called the Milky Way at full speed, his destination the world the humans called Terra Nova or the Omega Site once there he would make a plea for urgent assistance.

Thor arrived at Earth minutes before Aegir reached the Omega Site and after narrowly avoiding being fired upon as his unannounced arrival greatly agitated Colonel Chekov aboard the _Admiral Kuznetsov_ he promptly beamed up what he wanted and headed back to Ida planning to apologise to the human leadership later.

By the time Colonel O'Neill regained consciousness onboard the Daniel Jackson, suffering from a splitting headache and utterly confused not only about how he ended up there but also why Daniel, Teal'c, Andianov and Thor were waiting expectantly for him to explain what the weird gadget they insisted he had made was, the _Valhalla_ was itself half way back to Ida with Aegir pushing the engines of his own ship well beyond safe limits.

O'Neill was trying to make sense of the situation. According to Daniel Thor had apparently beamed him out of an Ancient Stasis Tube in Antarctica and whilst he remained comatose he had interfaced with the ships computer and had designed something virtually which the ship had then constructed according to his specifications. Since he had been filled up with Ancient knowledge Thor had hoped he might be able to come up with a means to fight the Replicators who had invaded the Asgard world Orilla and with any luck the gizmo was just the ticket the only problem was nobody knew what it was, how it worked or even how to turn it on.

Still none the wiser when they arrived back in orbit around Orilla Thor had decided to look for another exploitable weakness in the foe and had beamed aboard the inert body of a humanform replicator that another Asgard vessel had located floating in the wreckage of the enemy ship that hadn't made it into the atmosphere. As he scanned it trying to sift through its memory banks Andianov made the not unreasonable comment that if they were going to be doing something like this then they should have picked up some elerium weapons on Earth given that elerium was not a substance that you could easily produce using Asgard beaming technology and only elerium plasma bolts had proven themselves effective against these things in the past. O'Neill pointed out it was easy to be smart in hindsight to which the Sergeant replied she was never travelling without full battle-gear again and would ignore any comments about the destination being "perfectly safe".

The _Daniel Jackson_ detected the arrival from hyperspace of the _Valhalla_ but at the time Thor was too busy panicking about the apparently far from dead humanform replicator escaping and trying to kill them all to pay much attention. As the humans tried to bring it down ineffectually with buckshot Aegir was bringing his O'Neill Class warship into orbit above the city and he began to beam down his cargo.

The replicators were advancing unimpeded through the city like soldier ants, only slowed in their path because they were devouring technology and metal in order to make more of themselves. Having already begun to disable computer networks the Replicators prevented Asgard civilians from simply beaming away to safety and they were forced to flee as best they could on foot, most wishing they had cloned a body type better suited for running.

A group of Asgard found themselves cut off from possible escape as they headed towards a ship that had set down and was now loading evacuees. There were not remotely enough ships to take everyone and it was dangerous for the ship to even stay as long as it already had but the Asgard were not cowards and their Fleet would not abandon the population, they would rescue all they could before leaving and then they would raze the planet.

Being chased between rows of gleaming skyscrapers the group of Asgard knew the Replicators were chasing them down. They would be killed and some of the elements within their bodies would be used to make more of the things, it was not a welcome prospect. They had lived for centuries and now they would be ended by a soulless metal plague, a hundred thousand years of Asgard civilisation lost to creatures that were originally toys made by a copy of a human that possessed the mind of a child. There was little justice in the universe apparently, they thought as they found themselves being surrounded on all sides.

One of the Asgard noticed other sounds intermixed with the relentless skittering of the replicators across concrete, stone and metal, the sounds grew louder and intermixed with explosions as another aggressive species arrived on Orilla and began demonstrating once again the proven effectiveness of lead propelled by chemical explosions.

'Just remember, we only kill the bugs that look like lego' Colonel Rodrigues yelled into his radio as he led the first elements of what he liked to think of as the X-COM Expeditionary Force to the Ida Galaxy into the fray. He was justifiably concerned that when the adrenaline kicked in his soldiers might accidentally gun down a few Asgard given their resemblance to the old Sectoid enemy but for now at least they were taking out a lot more replicators and were surely saving orders of magnitude more Asgard than they might accidentally shoot.

Ever since they had learned of the Replicators X-COM had been developing weapons to fight them with. Since they were supposedly trapped all the hardware had been placed in storage but it was not disposed of because there could be more of the things out there somewhere and besides which what killed replicators effectively would work on plenty of other things.

The basic starting point was the X-COM autocannon, a large-calibre multi-barrelled gatling-gun like weapon driven by an electric motor. Originally equipped by an ammunition clip firing high-explosive, armour-piercing or incendiary rounds it was now belt-fed from a large back-pack and was loaded with tungsten buckshot. The whole package was of course inordinately heavy, and the recoil of the scaled-up shotgun shells was extreme, but that was rather less of an issue when you were wearing Powered Armour.

In addition to the three platoons in Powered Armour Rodrigues had bought with him on the Valhalla there were also another five equipped with the less effective AA-12's and a smattering of Heavy Plasma Rifles just in case the humanform types turned up and needed the X-COM treatment too. They formed a skirmish line and began advancing through the city shooting up the Replicators as they went, occasionally taking out groups of them with grenades and generally enjoying themselves. Aegir had beamed aboard all the ammunition for the weapons stored at the Omega Site and as they moved he sent down additional stocks to replenish what they had already fired. It would take the Asgard ages to dig all the tungsten and lead shot out of the buildings afterwards but the inconvenience was a price well worth paying.

The Fifth Race had arrived to fight Fifth and unlike the Asgard the new leader of the replicators was not happy about it. He was starting to dislike the species more and more especially given that Samantha Carter was still stubbornly refusing to accede to his wishes, or even fall for the false realities he was placing in her mind. There was a narrow boundary between love and hate and he was rapidly starting to cross it.

O'Neill didn't know how he knew the gadget his mind created was a gun, maybe it was a remnant of memory left when Thor had wiped the Ancient knowledge from his mind, or perhaps it was simply a recognition that regardless of circumstances the inner Jack O'Neill would be thinking about making "Big Honking Spaceguns" but no matter how he knew once the humanform replicator started to attack he had picked up the thing found what he guessed was the trigger and fired a blast of energy which turned the thing into dust.

Thor had realised right away it was a means of nullifying the bonds between individual replicator parts, either blocks or the smaller particles that made up the humanform types. The Asgard had attempted to create such a weapon previously but had failed but now that he had seen it was possible and seen it done the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet was confident he could build a far larger version and destroy the entire replicator legion at once.

Whilst interfacing with the humanform replicator Thor had found that Major Carter was still alive and on the surface and so whilst he built the scaled-up weapon SG-1 were beamed down to the planet near her known location. O'Neill still armed with the Anti-Replicator-Weapon soon found it was just as effective at destroying the original type, maybe more so, each discharge destroying large numbers at once, the path of SG-1 through the forest they arrived in carpeted with replicator blocks as they advanced towards where carter was, Teal'c, Andianov and Daniel using AA-12's to deal with strays.

Tens of thousands of replicators which had been eating their way through the city now changed direction and began flowing in another direction. At first Rodrigues thought it was a trap or ruse but a transmission from Aegir informing him that Thor had advised the other Asgard Ships that SG-1 were fighting the replicators with a powerful new weapon over where the bugs were heading had the X-COM Colonel ordering his men to give chase.

As the human soldiers coming from the city ran down his more primitive brethren Fifth appeared to SG-1 telling them he would kill Carter if they did not stop killing his kind. O'Neill paused for a moment but eventually SG-1 began fighting again, Fifth fleeing the scene heading back to the escape craft which he had ordered constructed.

'We must leave' Fifth told Carter. 'They've found a means to fight us' he said. 'One far more effective than your projectile weapons though even they have killed many' he added regretfully.

'The Asgard?' Carter replied. 'How?' she queried.

'Not them, the one you call O'Neill' Fifth told her. 'So many will have to be left behind, we cannot wait for them, they will be killed' he said sadly.

'Don't expect me to be sorry' Carter responded.

Fifth seemed distracted. 'Your friends are killing many, trying to stop us escaping' he said.

'Trying to save me' Carter told him.

'No! They do not care about you. I told them I would kill you if they did not stop' Fifth responded sharply.

'Then why don't you kill me?' Carter asked. 'You know why my friends won't stop, just to save me?'

'No' Fifth replied, he was genuinely confused.

'Because they know when it comes right down to it I would rather be dead than be trapped like this forever' Carter told him. 'No matter what you feel for me, I will never love you back. Kill me if you want, but if you have even one shred of humanity in you and you really, truly love me, you'll let me go' she said.

As they neared the replicator ship SG-1 heard more firing, and shortly afterwards they were amazed when dozens of Powered Armour suits appeared bounding through the forest from the direction of the city firing at the replicators they were chasing. 'How the hell did _they_ get here?' O'Neill asked rhetorically as SG-1 found itself tactically the anvil to the hammer, the fleeing replicators being driven straight towards the new weapon, nicely bunched up so it could have maximum effect.

The _Daniel Jackson_ was just moving into position when the replicator ship took off, hurtling skywards and entering hyperspace before it even cleared the atmosphere. Thor fired the new weapon sending a wave of disruptive energy right around the planet shattering every replicator on Orilla.

Thor had given O'Neill an Asgard communicator and it squawked to life just after the wave hit. '_O'Neill, the weapon worked. Reports from the colony say, all the remaining replicators have been neutralised. While the ship did escape, at least we have an effective means of fighting them now_' Thor signalled.

'Yeah, well, at least there's that' O'Neill replied sounding less than enthused.

'_O'Neill. I am detecting multiple additional human lifesigns in your immediate vicinity_' Thor now advised.

'Yeah they're hard to miss' O'Neill replied as the X-COM soldiers in Powered Armour started to mill about, some kicking replicator blocks around and one heading for SG-1, pulling off his helmet. 'Captain Gaston' O'Neill greeted the officer as the helmet came off revealing who it was.

'Colonel O'Neill' Gaston replied, 'I don't suppose you can explain what just happened can you?' he asked. 'One second we were smashing up lego and the next there was nothing to shoot at' he said as another soldier in Powered-Armour joined them, also lifting his helmet to reveal it was an equally puzzled looking Colonel Rodrigues.

'Okay, I'll tell you what happened if you say how you got here' O'Neill offered fairly.

Rodrigues was about to reply when Thor's voice interrupted again. '_O'Neill, one of the human lifesigns did not come from the direction of the city and is located where the replicator ship previously was_' he said.

'Carter' O'Neill exclaimed, starting to run.

Aegir had given chase in the _Valhalla_ but the replicator ship had gotten away. It had been built for speed at the expense of all else and even an O'Neill class vessel was unable to keep up though Aegir attempted to follow until it had left sensor range.

The IOA was extremely annoyed that the Asgard had basically taken O'Neill without permission and then shortly afterwards co-opted a full company of soldiers equipped with millions of dollars worth of military hardware, but politically they knew it might work out beneficially in the end because the Asgard owed Earth big this time and since they no longer needed the Asgard Fleet to defend Earth they could pull out of the Protected Planets Treaty entirely removing the legal obstacles to being given more advanced technology.

A certain X-COM Colonel was very pleased to be told that the next Asgard warship to be completed would be named the _Gomez Rodrigues_ by a grateful Asgard High Council but it was the news that the little grey guys would be providing Earth with designs for their hyperdrives and latest shield generators that was greeted with more general enthusiasm. The faster capital-ship engines were particularly important now they had an area of space some five hundred light-years across to try and patrol and defend now after all.

* * *

_**Note from the Author:**_

_The Tau'ri are in a much better position to actually get the territory they demand from the System Lords than they were originally in episode 8:01 New Order because the Goa'uld are well aware they have power-projection capabilities. Also the High Council of the System Lords is in a relatively worse position thanks to Baal not only having Kull Warriors but also the new Deathgliders and now the services of Thoth as well as Nerus. __Abydos belonged to Ra and was said to be the closest planet in the stargate system to Earth whereas Apophis launched an attack on Earth from another world itself only about ten light years away (episode 1:22 Within the Serpent's Grasp) which is why I'm placing Earth in the part of the galaxy that originally belonged to them._

_The Atchisson AA12 Assault Shotgun is a much more effective means of fighting large numbers of Replicators than the FN P90. The ability of Asgard technology to create devices and complex organic compounds from energy (likely an offshoot of their beaming technology) is demonstrated several times so Thor beng able to quickly make up some weapons for his human passengers isn't unlikely. Orilla is the new post-replicator war Asgard capital world._

_The X-COM __Auto-Cannon__ loaded with shotgun shells and fed off a back-pack seems like a nice way to deal with replicators if not as well as a __Replicator-Disruptor__. __Aegir__ captain of the __Valhalla__ was commanding the Asgard ships defending Orilla. Once the replicators were on the ground the fleet wasn't much use but fetching a few human soldiers and their weapons is a good use of the ship. __Penigal__ was a member of the __Asgard High Council__._


	3. Chapter 3

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**UN Building – New York – June 2004**

Shen Xiaoyi smiled and there was something about it that made Elizabeth Weir fear the worst. In the theatre of diplomacy that usually meant you needed to start checking for daggers in your back. 'The shrimp are very good aren't they?' Weir asked, turning towards the buffet table that took up this side of the conferance room. This was supposed to be a friendly, somewhat informal meeting over lunch and that only made Weir more concerned because if they were trying to make you relaxed that meant they were going to really stick the knife in deep and planned to twist it too.

'I'd have another but honestly I've probably already had a few too many of the canapés' the Chinese representative to the IOA replied, smiling again. 'Monsieur LaPierre seems to be having doubts about the cheese selection' she observed, indicating the French representative who was casting dubious looks at another portion of the buffet.

'Wait until he samples the wine' Weir responded, with a smile of her own. 'I'm surprised to see that Vice President Kinsey didn't make it' she said.

'I'm sure he's doing good works opening a school somewhere' the Chinese diplomat replied putting just a touch of sarcasm into her tone. 'The United States is already well represented by Mr Woolsey in any case' she continued. The American currently involved in what seemed like a fairly heated discussion with Russell Chapman from the United Kingdom on the other side of the room.

Weir popped a shrimp into her mouth, chewed daintily then swallowed. 'Do we know when our new Committee Chairman might be arriving?' she asked.

'Unfortunately his regular briefing of the Security Council is expected to overrun badly this time around' Shen Xiaoyi replied. 'We were asked to go ahead without him if he wasn't able to get out of there before two o'clock' she said, checking her watch. 'It's a pity however, Mr Strom was looking forward to telling you himself' she added.

'Telling me what?' Weir queried, trying to sound nonchalant.

The Chinese IOA member gave into the urge to have another canapé and reached for the platter holding them. 'That with the agreement of the Security Council that your brief tenure as Head of the SGC is coming to an end' she said, biting the canapé in half.

Elizabeth Weir tried not to show too much reaction. 'Really?' she asked. 'I thought I was doing a good job and was well regarded?' she replied.

Shen Xiaoyi swallowed the rest of the canapé. 'Oh but you are' she replied, 'you could think of it as a promotion' she said, 'I certainly would in your shoes' she told her.

Richard Woolsey and Russell Chapman came to join them. 'You've told her I assume?' Chapman asked the Chinese representative.

'Only the part about the SGC' she replied, 'not about the Atlantis expedition' she said.

'Atlantis expedition?' Weir responded in surprise. 'I thought that had been shelved as even a possibility?' she queried.

Woolsey shook his head. 'Certainly the idea that we would further deplete the only means we have at present to power the Ancient Weapons Platform is out of the question' he responded, 'but an alternate method of charging the stargate sufficiently to allow a long-distance intergalactic wormhole has presented itself and so the mission is now very much back on the cards' he said.

'Alternate method of charging the stargate?' Weir asked in confusion. 'The briefing I received subsequent to Doctor Jackson discovering the eight symbols that dial the Lost City indicated that only a Zero Point Module or perhaps several Asgard Neutrino-Ion-Generators working in conjunction could do the job' she said.

Chapman chuckled. 'I wouldn't claim to understand the science but we received an offer through diplomatic channels from Joseph Faxon our Ambassador on Tollan for a device that could do the job' he told her. 'The Tollan Curia are willing to provide technical assistance and support and we've decided to take them up on the offer' he said.

'They named their price though' Shen Xiaoyi added.

Woolsey shrugged. 'The Tollan are concerned that if we managed to obtain more Ancient Technology without them there to supervise, or at least advise, we might get ourselves and plenty of others killed' he said. 'The Curia want at least one of their own people along to make sure that we don't do what the Seritans did to themselves given access to radically more advanced science.'

'Plus the Curia wants unrestricted access to anything we find of course' LaPierre interjected, joining the group. 'They're not acting completely on altruism' he noted wryly.

Shen Xiaoyi looked around at the other representatives. 'It will be at least few weeks before we can organise the personnel and equipment' she told Weir, 'the Curia has also suggested we involve some of our other allies in the expedition and we're considering it but as far as you're concerned Doctor Weir the question is simple' she said, 'will you agree to lead the team going to the Pegasus Galaxy?' she asked.

Weir was going to say yes immediately but then she paused. 'Why me?' she asked.

'There are a number of reasons' Woolsey began, 'firstly the Tollan requested it' he said, 'they along with several of our other offworld friends hold you in high esteem...'

'And they don't want our military in charge' Weir interrupted him, 'particularly X-COM.'

'Quite so' Chapman confirmed.

'It's not just the Tollan either, the Tok'ra and Free Jaffa don't like X-COM themselves and the Nox and Gadmeer have already stated that they would consider any military-led expedition as objectionable on philosophical grounds' Woolsey told her. 'They all like you though' he continued, 'they see you as a moderating influence on our barbaric ways.'

'So that explains why the aliens like the idea of me being in charge what about the IOA and the Security Council?' Weir asked.

'Do you want the truth?' Shen Xiaoyi responded.

'As much of it as you're willing to give me' Weir replied sardonically.

'In that case there is an element of doing to you what we did to Commander Sharp' LaPierre told her, 'send you off into the cosmos where you can do your job and not cause trouble for us' he said.

Weir frowned. 'Sharp screwed up, that's why he was sent to the Omega Site' she said.

'And you don't think that having Earth ally itself with a goa'uld faction wouldn't be seen in some quarters as a bad thing?' Woolsey responded.

'Though oddly enough getting the High Council of the System Lords to accept Earth control over this region of space did drastically improve your image amongst certain sections of the military' Shen Xiaoyi told her. 'They seem to think of it as a diplomatic coup, some kind of machiavellian masterstroke rather than a miscalculation on your part.'

'I was trying to keep Earth out of an internal goa'uld dispute' Weir told them.

'We know, not that we wouldn't have gotten involved in any case, most likely in opposition to Baal as we are now anyway' Chapman said, 'but it would have been entirely on our terms.'

'Unfortunately it's just not good policy to back on an agreement once made' LaPierre observed, 'the last thing we want is for the galactic powers to think that Earth would sign a treaty and not stick to it' he said.

'Even the goa'uld understand the game well enough to have stuck by the terms of the Protected Planets Treaty for centuries' Chapman pointed out, 'we cannot sacrifice our future reputation as a world whose word can be trusted for short-term gains so whether we like the implications or not the treaty you negotiated holds' he said. 'Of course there are ways around it' he added with a smirk.

The Chinese representative smiled evilly. 'Whilst _we_ cannot take military action against any of the System Lords allied against Baal the Tok'ra and Free Jaffa are in no such position' she said. 'With a little encouragement, and perhaps some additional supplies, they should be able to continue to press Lord Yu, Camulus and the others and prevent them re-building too much of their military strength whilst we're otherwise occupied.'

'No exactly in the spirit of our agreement with the High Council of the System Lords' Weir responded disparagingly.

'We knew you'd think so but the letter of the law is good enough for us' LaPierre replied.

'If you expect I might make waves about us being underhanded I'll point out that while I made the agreement I was never that keen and I certainly don't trust the goa'uld to hold to their end of the bargain for one second longer than it serves their interests' Weir told them.

'Whether you would or not it would be best for your reputation as an honest broker be unsullied in case we ever need you again, regardless of any other considerations' Chapman told her. 'With you in another galaxy you won't be implicated in any shady business that occurs after you've departed so if the need ever arises where we need your services to treat with another power we can bring you back to do so with your reputation for honesty intact.'

'I'm an asset' Weir replied.

'We're all assets Doctor Weir' Woolsey replied. 'At the present moment you as a resource can serve your planet best by not being on it' he said.

Weir sighed. 'I feel like I'm being drafted' she said.

'To a job that you've said previously you would like to do anyway so please don't overplay the martyr card Doctor Weir' Chapman responded. 'The military would prefer to be leading any mission themselves of course but after a few grumbles they can be relied upon to do as they're told like good little loyal soldiers' he said.

'Do I get to choose my own personnel if I decide to accept?' Weir asked.

'Yes within reason, but you will have to accept that a reasonable proportion of your team will be military given the nature of the expedition' Woolsey told her. 'That includes X-COM who insist on having a role' he added.

'Being international and under UN Command the Security Council also desires X-COM participation' Shen Xiaoyi told Weir. 'We _don't_ want this to end up another United States dominated affair like the early stargate program' she said, looking directly at Woolsey who shuffled uncomfortably under her glare.

Elizabeth Weir became lost in thought. Ever since Doctor Jackson announced his theory that the Ancients had departed Earth millions of years ago in their "Flying City", a notion that might have been consider slightly absurd if you hadn't ever seen the one the Nox had, the notion of actually going there had been lodged in her mind.

They already knew that the Ancients had been devastated by a great plague that ravaged the Milky Way long ago, though the lengths they had apparently gone to in order to escape it was rather extreme with those still uninfected simply packing up and heading to another galaxy. Examination of the Ancient Outpost in Antarctica had provided the gate address but they had then been presented by another problem, if it still existed at all Atlantis was a very very long way away.

The Asgard galaxy of Ida was _much_ closer in galactic terms and even then you needed one of the Ancient power-boosters O'Neill had made the first time he had the Ancient database downloaded into his mind in order to get there. According to the gate address the Lost City had headed to the Pegasus Dwarf Irregular Galaxy which lay three million light years from Earth, thirty times the distance from one side of the Milky Way to the other and the power needed to open a wormhole that far was staggering.

The power source O'Neill had fetched from Proclarush Taonas could do it but they had learned it was more akin to a battery than a generator and there wasn't much left in it. Dubbed a ZPM, or Zero Point Module, by the physicists led by Rodney McKay who had studied the thing it still had enough charge to power the Ancient Weapons Platform one or maybe two more times but after that Earth would lose its most effective defence. Certainly draining it in order to send a few people across the universe on what could be a wild goose chase was never going to be allowed so Jackson's discovery had been merely academic so far despite Weir lobbying hard to send an expedition.

'If I do this then who gets command of the SGC?' Weir asked the IOA representatives.

'We had to throw the Americans a bone, their Pentagon in particular, so with one objection we've agreed with a recommendation from your predecessor' Russell Chapman replied. 'Vice-President Kinsey was not happy by any means but despite what he might think his voice doesn't carry more weight than anyone else merely because he's an elected official of the United States' he said, the others nodding apart from Woolsey.

When she returned to Cheyenne Mountain Elizabeth Weir couldn't help but be amused at how the newly promoted, and recently defrosted, Brigadier-General Jack O'Neill was taking the news that he now ran the place, admittedly he wasn't the only one wearing a stunned expression at the prospect.

* * *

**Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2004**

Brigadier-General Jack O'Neill looked in dismay at the pile of paperwork on his desk and wondered again why he had agreed to take the job. Sure he got a better parking space and getting a star on his collar was nice but the promotion didn't come with a pay-rise because he was on the X-COM rolls and they paid everyone the same from Private on up. Admittedly they paid everyone a hell of a lot but it was the principle of the thing he thought ruefully.

The news from Cydonia Base had been a nice distraction which had kept him away from the office for a while this morning at least. Apparently one of the team combing through the wreckage of all those Ha'taks the Asgard had helpfully dumped on Mars had gone "loony-toons" according to witnesses before he jacked an Al'kesh which had just arrived with a load of naquadah from the asteroid mine in the Oort Cloud and flew off with it. Other than the weirdness of that in itself he wasn't even a pilot, let alone trained to fly a goa'uld ship, so after failing to catch him before he went into hyperspace everyone was now thinking he must have been an infiltrator working for one of the System Lords or maybe the rogue NID.

X-COM was now in the throes of even greater paranoia than usual and was instigating a new round of compulsory screening of personnel. Everyone would be subjected to scan by Mind Probe as well as being checked with a Za'tarc Detector before being cleared to work again. This would cause days of disruption, perhaps weeks, and was the last thing he needed to add to the irritation of Elizabeth Weir running around trying to poach staff and those damn Tollan patronising everyone and complaining about the quality of the plumbing and the softness of the beds in the guest quarters.

O'Neill took another look at the stack of reports he was being badgered to read. 'I'd better check on the Tollan' he decided, standing up and heading out the door.

Everyone was treating him different now, O'Neill noted as he walked through the corridors. He always thought of himself as being the one that stuck it to the man but now _he_ was the man and the likes of Lieutenant-Colonel Ferretti were out to stick it to _him_. There was something particularly insolent about the way that the commanding officer of SG-2 said "Sir" now that O'Neill was trying his best to ignore but it was difficult and he wondered how on Earth General Hammond had managed to cope with _him_ all these years.

Carter was a very different problem. She had received a well-deserved promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel and was now head of SG-1 but O'Neill was finding it hard to let go for more reasons than he cared to admit, even to himself. Watching her lead the team through the gate while he stayed behind and drank coffee was painful, although Walter did make an excellent brew he had to admit. In his usual way Daniel had tried to help O'Neill through the trauma of change, Teal'c was full of sage advice whereas Andianov was complaining that she didn't get a promotion herself and had no sympathy for the problems of those that had received recognition for their efforts. The latter had expressed this in front of a visiting Major Davis who looked like he might applaud for a moment before he stopped himself, opting to offer to buy her a drink instead.

The team of Tollan engineers had established themselves in a large room situated near the gate and after it was stripped out they had begun putting together what Doctor Bill Lee described as the mother of all capacitors. Arriving in one of their cruisers the Tollan had utilised an Asgard-supplied transporter beam to offload the parts and had been carefully assembling them in the three days since stopping periodically to reply to questions from Earth scientists most of which were answered with "You wouldn't understand".

The main body of the thing looked like ten Tollan stargates stacked vertically around a column separated by small blocks of what looked like obsidian, which was basically what the thing was. The Tollan had initially described them as being "half a gate" which O'Neill had imagined as a bunch of semi-circles until Carter explained that they meant they didn't have the ability to open a wormhole, just the ability to hold a charge. Between them the stack of rings could store a staggering amount of energy but you had to charge them in a certain way and do so slowly in order to build up enough charge to open a wormhole to the Pegasus Galaxy and maintain it for a useful amount of time.

The Ancient "Stargate-Destroyer" device utilised two years before by Anubis had demonstrated that you could _drastically_ over-charge a stargate if you did it the right way and the Tollan had figured out a means to replicate that effect. A large rack of Orbanian Naquadah Generators fed power into a transformer-like device which then transferred it to the stack, slowly charging them all to a level not far off the point where they would explode. It took days at minimum, the Tollan advised five or six in order to be safe and not overtax the system but once it was fully charged you could then dump all the accumulated energy into the actual stargate and hold an inter-galactic wormhole open for some time, at least until the stack ran down and had to be recharged again. The part of the device that transferred the stored energy to the stargate was itself in fact based loosely upon the Power Booster previously used to open wormholes to Ida, the Tollan having previously expressed an interest in studying the design.

It wasn't ideal of course, once depleted you had to wait days to use it again, but the Tollan were confident it would work. It was a rather brute-force solution in some ways, not typical Tollan elegance of design, but they reasoned the Earth humans would appreciate that sort of thing anyway. There was certainly no way they were going to give them a couple of their own UFT Generators after what the Seritans did with them, the worst case scenario for the stack exploding wasn't literally planet-shattering like a UFT Generator could do if misused. There would be a very impressive crater where Colorado used to be though but there were plenty of safeguards to prevent even that, the Tollan were deliberately making the system idiot proof because deep down many of them still considered the locals well qualified for the description.

When O'Neill arrived he carefully avoided talking to the lead Tollan engineer and struck up a conversation with her deputy instead. The woman leading the team was not happy about being on Earth, inside the SGC in particular, and when pressed on why she was so tetchy the previous day O'Neill had learned she had been one of the team led by Omac who had been rescued by SG-1 from their original homeworld years before. Given that the United States had attempted to enslave her as forced intellectual labour on her previous visit her attitude was perhaps understandable, Earth had not exactly made the best first impression there.

O'Neill had learned that before they had been pulled off their previous project and sent to Earth the engineers had been on Langara helping build one of the ore-processing plants the Curia was now constructing there. Raw materials from the star-cluster nicknamed "The Frontier" were transported from largely automated Tollan-built mining facilities to Langara via stargate to be refined there before dispatch to either Tollana itself or other worlds looking to purchase raw materials. The plants provided relatively high-wage jobs to the Langaran people and additional tax revenue to their governments helping them rebuild their economy. The Curia considered it a far more effective and beneficial way to help the Langarans than merely sending aid and Tollana itself would benefit from a better resource supply.

Although it had been a culture-shock being on a world like Langara at first, O'Neill was told as he talked to the engineer, it was hard not to become fond of a place where everyone seemed to want to shake your hand and thank you. The Tollan had of course declared war on Loki as a result of his invasion of Langara and more recently when the possibility of a goa'uld invasion had threatened Tollan warships arrived in orbit to defend the planet if necessary so it wasn't surprising that the Tollan were greeted warmly. For that matter O'Neill suspected the engineer had found it very easy to get laid judging from a few of his comments regarding wanting to get back there.

Deciding that if he stayed too much longer it would look too obvious he was trying to avoid work Brigadier-General Jack O'Neill then headed to Daniel's office to ask if he had made any further progress translating whatever artefact he was currently enthralled by. O'Neill didn't actually know for certain there was such a thing but it was a reasonable bet there was and if he feigned interest for half an hour he could then justify a short break for coffee before looking for some other justification for not being at his desk.

The now very pregnant Doctor Janet Frasier carrying a box blocked much of the corridor and after being snapped at for offering to carry it for her "I'm pregnant, I'm not an invalid" being very much her phrase of choice right now, O'Neill finally got her to relent and found a means to kill a few more minutes as he escorted her towards the infirmary carrying the box. The birth due only weeks away now she would be going on maternity leave very soon having refused to do so any earlier because the boredom of not being at the SGC would kill her.

'So how are things with Cassie?' O'Neill asked, making conversation as he put the box down where she indicated it was to go.

'Very angry' Janet replied.

'What about?' O'Neill queried. 'Sit down if you want' he told her, she had remained standing and he realised it might be because he had that star now.

Janet sat down gratefully, although not an invalid she was carrying around more weight now. 'Did you know that Weir approached Captain Gaston and asked him to join her expedition?' she asked.

'No' O'Neill replied, there might be something about that in one of the files on his desk though he suspected. Maybe he should read them, at least tomorrow maybe?

'Well she did and Cassie has got it into her head that I had something to do with her boyfriend being sent to another galaxy' Janet told him. 'She thinks I got Russell to do it.'

'How exactly did she think he'd manage that given he's not exactly someone Weir would listen to?' O'Neill asked. 'Unless she thinks he told Doctor Weir "Under no circumstances will you ask Captain Jake Gaston to go to Atlantis" using reverse psychology.'

'Cassie isn't thinking logically she's just upset' Janet responded. 'To be honest I am glad their relationship could be about to become the most long-distance in history' she admitted. 'One day he's going to get killed, permanently I mean, and it would devastate her.'

O'Neill shrugged. 'I don't know what anyone would see in one of those X-COM guys anyway' he said then realised his mouth had run away wit itself badly as Doctor Frasier directed a searing look in his direction that an elerium plasma-beam cannon could only dream of emulating.

'Ah yes, Captain Jake Gaston' Janet began, 'early twenties, tall, better than average looks, athletic' she said, 'not only that he's also a war hero who fights evil aliens for a job, a job that pays an obscene salary so he can buy her nice things, and in his spare time he writes _poetry_' she continued, 'why would any young woman be attracted to him I wonder?' she asked wryly.

'Okay, I see your point' O'Neill conceded. 'On the plus side unlike other guys she could date he probably thinks that if he hurt Cassie in any way he you'd have Commander Sharp send him on a one-way suicide mission' he said before smiling. 'I've got to ask, does Sharp play the intimidating father if Gaston visits Cassie while he's there?'

'No' Janet replied, 'I expected him to though and when I asked him about it later he told me that Gaston already knows him well enough to be scared of him so why bother' she said. 'Anyway he has the idea that any man who would date a girl that could read his mind and telekinetically beat him up if she didn't like what she saw in there _must_ have good intentions.'

'Well it's safe to say he won't cheat on her at least' O'Neill agreed, although thinking about it later he pondered if given the dubious sanity of much of X-COM that was necessarily the case.

* * *

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – July 2004**

The first reconnaissance had been made by MALP robots a week before. Four of the things had been sent through and finding themselves in the dark the remote-operators back on Earth had activated their lights and then the things had spent the next quarter of an hour crawling around what was clearly a much larger complex than the one in Antarctica sending back images and other telemetry until the gate shut-down.

Wherever it was the environment could support human life so the next time a wormhole to Pegasus was opened after several days recharging the Tollan Stargate Capacitor it was deemed time for the first part of the human expedition to be sent and along with three dozen soldiers, scientists and engineers Elizabeth Weir stepped through the event horizon of a stargate on Earth only to emerge three million light-years distant in an Ancient City that smelled like it needed airing very badly.

Although the city had ignored the robots it seemed to react to the presence of humans and the lights started coming on as the explorers started to scout around making it much easier to survey their new surroundings, discovering they were underwater was a revelation although Weir had been less happy at finding out why the Ancients had submerged the place and then left.

According to Carson Beckett, the teams head physician who had happily transferred from the Omega Site to join this mission when invited, the holographic recording now being projected standing on a platform in the middle of the room, had come on as soon as he entered. This was possibly because he carried what they now called the ATA Gene, the one responsible not only for how much psionic strength a human had but was also now proven to be needed to use certain Ancient technologies. He had already watched the automated recording right through himself when Doctor Weir arrived with her senior military staff and Rodney McKay her chief scientist in tow and judging by his expression it wasn't all good news.

Presumably they were looking at the likeness of an Ancient woman who had left the recording to explain what had transpired to the next person that visited Atlantis and Weir couldn't help but be transfixed at the very idea, they were so much like us, she thought as she listened.

'...in the hope of spreading new life in a galaxy where there appeared to be none. Soon, the new life grew and prospered. Here...' the hologram said.

'What have we missed?' Colonel Alexi Vaselov the Russian commanding the military personnel asked. A former cosmonaut and more recently a fighter-pilot who had flown an F-302X against Anubis during the attack on Earth he was ardently professional and came with the highest recommendations from both X-COM and the Russian Government. It had been a choice between him and an American Colonel named Sumner for the job but when Weir had personally requested that Major John Sheppard be on the expedition, both because of his known ATA Gene strength and the fact she already knew him, Sumner had been ruled out because the IOA didn't want both of the highest ranked officers to be from the same country.

'Not much' Beckett replied.

'...exchange knowledge and friendship. In time, a thousand worlds bore the fruit of life in this form. Then one day, our people set foot upon a dark world where a terrible enemy slept' the hologram continued as another image appeared, a depiction of the galaxy they were in. 'Never before had we encountered beings with powers that rivaled our own. In our overconfidence, we were unprepared and outnumbered. The enemy fed upon the defenseless human worlds like a great scourge, until finally, only Atlantis remained' she said.

As the stars being projected changed colour to red to indicate the systems being conquered the hologram continued to speak. 'This city's great shield was powerful enough to withstand their terrible weapons, but here we were besieged for many years. In an effort to save the last of our kind, we submerged our great city into the ocean. The Atlantis Stargate was the one and only link back to Earth from this galaxy, and those who remained used it to return to that world that was once home. There, the last survivors of Atlantis lived out the remainder of their lives. This city was left to slumber, in the hope that our kind would one day return' she finished.

'Huh. So the story of Atlantis is true. A great city that sank in the ocean' McKay observed.

'It just didn't happen on Earth' Beckett responded.

'Well, the Ancient Greeks must have heard it from one of the surviving Ancients' McKay reasoned.

'I am more interested in finding out more about this enemy that defeated them' Colonel Vaselov stated, turning to Major Sheppard stood beside him. They were both wearing X-COM jumpsuits and torso armour made of trinium/cydonium alloy. 'Inform the troops of the possibility of hostiles' he ordered.

'Yes Sir' Sheppard replied, turning away and reaching for his radio headset.

Another of the scientific team joined them and whispered something to McKay. 'Don't play it again' he told Beckett. 'Power levels thoughout the city are dropping like a stone' McKay declared. 'We need to find out why and until we do we need to stop wasting power' he told them.

What seemed to be the control room for the entire city overlooked the stargate and McKay was working on a computer he had interfaced with the local systems. They were fortunate that the goa'uld had copied Ancient technology rather than inventing much of their own because it wasn't all that different from doing the same thing to the computer core on a Ha'tak. Plugging into a goa'uld mothership was of course something they were well used to doing, having once owned two and still possessing the _Kuznetsov_ though _Enterprise_ had been lost.

'From what we've been able to ascertain, the city is powered by three Zero-Point Modules' McKay announced. 'Two are entirely depleted, and the third is reaching maximum entropy. When it does, it will die too, and nothing can reverse that' he said.

'Meaning?' Weir asked him.

'The force field holding back the ocean has collapsed to its minimum sustainable levels' McKay replied. 'Look, you can see here and here where the shield's already failed and the city's flooded. It could've happened years ago. But this section is likely more protected because of the Stargate' he said.

'All right, well, how much time do we have?' Weir asked.

'At least a week if we plug in all the naquadah generators we've bought with us' McKay replied. Those were something they had plenty of at least but they weren't up to keeping a shield that size powered for much longer whilst holding back an ocean.

'So we need more ZPM's right?' Weir asked.

'If there were more in the city we'd detect them' McKay replied.

'I think that Tollan guy had the right idea not wanting to come here until the next week' Sheppard muttered.

'Can we use the stargate to get home?' Weir asked.

'Not enough left in the ZPM' McKay replied apologetically. 'We can plug in a naquadah generator and get you to any other planet with a gate in this galaxy if you want to evacuate' he said. 'The shield should hold until the next time they open a wormhole from Earth and we can tell them where we're going, ask for additional supplies and ask them to send a ship.'

'Pity we didn't come in a ship' Sheppard remarked.

'We would have arrived in orbit, found no sign of Atlantis and gone home' McKay pointed out.

'Yeah but I wouldn't be worried about getting crushed by a billion tons of water' Sheppard replied, 'there was a reason I wanted to fly aircraft in the USAF not drive submarines in the USN' he said.

'A team with submersibles could come to this world and retrieve much salvage' Colonel Vaselov suggested.

McKay nodded. 'Not ideal but we could do that' he agreed. 'Even a few of those little ships we found in that hanger upstairs would be well worth hauling out of this place when it's flooded' he said. 'I've found a library of gate addresses in the database which lead to habitable planets, I suggest we try the one at the top of the list first and look for somewhere we can wait for rescue he said.'

Vaselov nodded. 'I will lead the scouting mission' he said. 'Put together a reconnaissance team Major' he told Sheppard.

'Want the Powered Armour and the P3-A1's unpacked Sir?' Sheppard asked.

'No, if we meet anyone I would prefer not to scare them' Vaselov replied. 'Standard body-armour and light weaponry' he told him. 'With your permission of course Doctor Weir' he added, turning to the expedition leader.

'Go ahead, I don't want to be here when all that water comes crashing in either' Weir told him sincerely.

When the MALP they sent through to the first planet on the database reported back that the environment was safe, although it was night there unfortunately making looking around less easy than it would have been Colonel Vaselov led through his team. Fortunately one thing they did not lack for was equipment so the X-COM soldiers put on night-vision goggles and began scouting out from the stargate following what seemed to be a well-worn trail through the surrounding forest that at least indicated recent inhabitation.

Captain Gaston was the most experienced at visiting new worlds after his long secondment from X-COM to the SGC and he was paying for it now because the rookie on the team Lieutenant Ford was shadowing his every move. To the amusement of the rest of Gaston's squad every time the captain stopped to look around or listen Ford did the same, and a few of them were trying not to laugh, especially the Israeli medic Nava Eitam who knew she had a tendency to giggle and not be able to stop once it started.

Sergeant Kevin Nash, veteran of X-COM and the Royal Marine's elite Special Boat Service wasn't happy with the people in charge. He had been on a good few missions with the young Captain and was confident he knew his business, having cut his teeth fighting Sectoids and Mutons up close and personal, but the Colonel and the Major were pilots not ground-pounders even if they did both have good records. If the shit hit the fan Nash and the other X-COM Troopers hoped Vaselov and Sheppard were smart enough to listen to the experienced professionals and wouldn't think that rank meant ability. Nash respected Sheppard, the crazy bastard had flown him into several hot LZ's during the Sectoid War, but that didn't mean he was going to be any good in a fire-fight.

Nava heard a twig snap and suddenly charged into the trees emerging seconds later holding what appeared to be a young boy in her free hand who was yelling and hollering. As he struggled Sheppard was the first to reach them and told him to calm down as another boy appeared and begged the strangers not to hurt him or his friend as he pulled off a mask he was wearing.

'Why didn't you just zat him?' Sheppard asked wryly as the medic released her hold on the boy and lifted her goggles as a few flashlights were turned on.

'If he's been taller I might have' Eitam replied.

A man appeared running towards them. 'Please!' he called out. 'They're just playing' he said as the oddly dressed newcomers pointed what he guessed were weapons at him.

Sheppard stood aside to let the boy the medic had grabbed hold of run to the man, the other boy doing the same.

The Russian Colonel approached, also taking off his goggles knowing they would look intimidating. 'Hello' he greeted the man. 'We do not mean you any harm' he reassured him, smiling. 'I am Alexi Vaselov' he introduced himself.

'I am Halling' the man replied guardedly. 'Are you here to trade?' he asked. 'Did you come through the Ring of the Ancestors?' he queried.

'We call it a stargate and yes we came from there and would like to both trade and look around your world if we can' Vaselov told him. 'We are explorers and travellers.'

The man Halling nodded. 'Teyla will wish to speak to you' he replied now looking more relaxed as he turned to address the boys. 'Now, how many times have I told you not to play in the forest after dark? I'm just glad you're safe' he chided.

Detailing a couple of soldiers to guard the stargate and report back to Atlantis that they had found an indigenous human population Vaselov and the others followed Halling and the boys back to their village, Sheppard striking up a conversation with the boys who were fascinated by the night-vision gear he had. The boy who had been wearing a mask of his own explained it was "Wraith" when Sheppard asked about it and seemed very surprised the strangers had never heard the name.

The locals lived in tents suggesting they did not remain in one place too long and there was little evidence of technology Vaselov noted as Halling took them to a particular tent. The Russian introduced himself and Major Sheppard to a woman who gave her name as "Teyla Emmagan, daughter of Tagan" and was justifiably wary of them given their appearance though not especially unfriendly.

Like many people who lead a nomadic existence the locals, who called themselves Athosians after their planet Athos, seemed to have a certain way of dealing with strangers and Sheppard and Vaselov tried to make a good impression accepting an offer to share the tea Teyla was preparing before the coming dawn. Whilst the Colonel and the Major played nice with the locals Gaston and the others did their best not to look too intimidating and continued scouting the local area until the sun rose high enough to reveal exactly the sort of thing they might have hoped for.

Not too far from the settlement on the other side of some swampy ground the remains of a city indicated that Athos had not always been so primitive. The Athosians called it a "City of the Ancestors" and warned it was not safe but Vaselov could not pass up the opportunity to investigate the site looking for somewhere to set up home or even technology that might even include a ZPM if it had been built by the Ancients and they were very lucky.

The Athosians were adamant that if anyone visited the ruins then the Wraith would come. They were all more than surprised that the strangers had no idea who or what the Wraith were and said that if they had never been to the world the strangers came from then they should count themselves lucky and go back there. Sheppard replied that wasn't an option right now but asked to learn more about the Wraith if he could whereupon Teyla offered to take him to some caves to show him something.

Sheppard was surprised when Teyla used what appeared to be a laser to light a torch before leading him into the caves, it seemed the Athosians weren't always the pre-industrial culture they were now and may have been ahead of Earth perhaps before the Wraith destroyed their civilisation, a story that was told in pictures on the cave walls.

'The Wraith allow our kind to grow in numbers' Teyla explained, 'and when that number reaches a certain point, they return to…cull their human herd' she said. 'Sometimes, a few hundred years will pass before they awaken again. We've visited many, many worlds. I know of none untouched by the Wraith. The last great holocaust was five generations ago, but still, they return in smaller numbers, to remind us of their power' she told him.

'That's a hell of a way to live' Sheppard replied.

'We move our hunting camps around' Teyla explained. 'We try to teach our children not to live in fear, but it is hard. Some of us can sense the Wraith coming. That gives us warning' she said. 'We should go. It will be dark soon' she said. Athos had very short days it was only a few hours since dawn and already the sun was going down as the planet quickly rotated on its axis.

Colonel Vaselov had performed a quick survey of the city, it was not in a good state and there were no power-sources to be found on cursory examination but he wanted to bring in a scientific team to check properly before giving up the notion entirely. He sent Lieutenant Ford back to the gate to collect a few additional personnel he had requested from Atlantis and pondered his next move. They could certainly set up camp here and wait for a rescue ship but he was curious about these Wraith wondering if they could be the enemy the Ancients spoke of. No matter anyway, he decided eventually, they couldn't stay in Atlantis and Athos seemed as good a place as any right now to establish a temporary home.

It was dark again when Ford reached the stargate. He was about to dial the address for Atlantis when the gate lit up indicating an incoming wormhole and to his great surprise instead of people coming through three sleek aircraft shot out from the event horizon and after climbing and banking slightly headed towards the location of the city at high speed. They reminded him in principle of the chappa'nok'kek gate-fighters Apophis then Lord Yu employed that he had seen depicted in training manuals but they were much faster and less bulky and he reported that to Colonel Vaselov on the radio as the things streaked towards him and the others.

The Athosians panicked and scattered, the sound of a Wraith Dart familiar and terrifying as they ran for their lives.

Teyla and Sheppard were already running back towards the village. Somehow she had known they were coming even before she heard the Darts and he already had a suspicion how but for now his theory would have to be forgotten.

Without orders to fire as yet Jake Gaston watched as one of the alien ships swept overhead directing a beam of light at the ground which swept up a group of Athosians. 'Transporter beam' he reasoned, the Asgard had similar technology.  
Colonel Vaselov watched the same craft bank sharply heading in for another run. 'Open fire' he ordered.

Halling watched as one of the strangers raised his weapon and aimed along it. They could not possibly hope to hit such a fast moving target he thought for a moment before a beam of light shot out from the strangers weapon and struck the Wraith Dart he was aiming at.

The Wraith Dart exploded and the wreckage showered the forest.

Vaselov was suddenly struck by the notion he was surrounded, there were monsters amongst the trees, they were everywhere. 'They are everywhere' he said, starting to panic firing wildly into the forest.

The Colonel got off three shots before a zat discharge hit him and he fell to the ground. 'Psionic attack' Sergeant Nash yelled out after dropping his commanding officer.

'Fight it' Jake Gaston ordered, pushing the attempt to attack his mind back like he had when Ethereals had done the same thing. 'Knock those fucking fighters down' he bellowed, firing his L2-A3 into the sky full auto along with the other soldiers.

A second dart was hit, the laser beam that connected going through a less vital system this time and instead of exploding it crashed into the ground in more or less one piece. As the canopy seemed to vanish the pilot stumbled out nearly managing to get two steps before Gaston hit it with a zat'nik'tel discharge putting it down. 'That's one for Alien Containment' he said, rolling the comatose alien over with his foot.

The pilot of the third Dart decided that discretion was the better part of valour and he headed back towards the gate at full speed trying to use his culling beams to collect any other human he could on the way. Most scattered clear but he did manage to sweep up an unconscious Russian going past as he remote-dialled the gate address to his home.

'Bugger it' Nash swore as he watched Vaselov disappear. 'Cease fire, it's got the Colonel' he called into his radio.

Lieutenant Ford still by the stargate had the presence of mind to memorise the symbols which had been dialled as the alien fighter returned at high speed shot through the event horizon of the outgoing wormhole and disappeared back from whence it came. The entire action had lasted only a few minutes.

Elizabeth Weir had not been expecting Major Sheppard to return with a number of refugees, still less an alien prisoner, a load of salvaged parts from some kind of ship and the news that Colonel Vaselov had been captured. According to the Athosians, who were still almost as shocked by the way the strangers had dispatched the Wraith as they had been the attack itself, the lost of the Darts would lead to massive retaliation so they had to leave their world.

The Athosians had claimed to know the addresses of many other worlds the strangers could look for a new home on instead and Sheppard had decided their knowledge could be an asset so he told them they come along with his people for now.

As the unconscious Wraith was carried away Weir went to meet the refugees, Sheppard introducing her as the leader of his group.

'This is the Lost City of the Ancestors' Teyla said in wonderment, looking around. 'I thought it was just a myth that it survived' she said.

'We thought Atlantis was a myth too not long ago' Weir replied. 'Millions of years ago this city stood on our own homeworld until the Ancients, who I guess are the people you call the Ancestors, left to make their home here instead' she told them.

'From what world do you come then?' Teyla asked. 'It must be far away' she reasoned.

'We call our world Earth' Weir replied, 'the Ancients, the Ancestors I mean, called it Terra' she said.

Teyla nodded. 'So you are the Terrans' she said. 'I greet the Terrans on behalf of the Athosians' she declared.

'Beats the shit out of being called the fucking Tau'ri anyway' Sergeant Nash muttered.

'Ma'am the Colonel was captured and according to what I've learned about these Wraith he could still be alive' Sheppard told Weir. 'We've got the address where they took him, request permission to go get him back.'

'Before I agree to anything I want to hear everything you've been told about the Wraith and I also want to talk to the one you captured' Weir replied. 'If these are the people that beat the Ancients I'm not going to do anything before I've had a chance to consider the situation' she told him. If they could strike up a dialogue perhaps they might be able to negotiate she hoped.

'Yes Ma'am' Sheppard responded, bringing himself to attention. 'Can I at least ready a team in case you authorise a rescue attempt?'

'You can' Weir agreed.

'Captain Gaston' Sheppard said loudly, 'un-crate the Powered Armour and the Heavy Plasma Rifles' he ordered. 'If we're doing this we're going in loaded for bear' he added.

'Right away Sir' Gaston replied. 'You heard the Major' he called out, 'Gear up X-COM, I want us ready to go in thirty minutes' he announced.

'You cannot be seriously thinking about undertaking such a mission' Teyla said incredulously. ''It is suicide to attack the Wraith' she told them.

'Ms. Emmagan' Gaston responded in a calm tone, 'you may think this sounds like hubris' he began, 'but if you think that we don't know enough about these Wraith allow me to offer the counter-argument that for their part the Wraith have' he paused, '_no idea who they are fucking with_ ' he bellowed resulting in a spontaneous chant of "X-COM, X-COM, X-COM" from the troopers around the room and a lot of rifles being brandished above heads.

'Is anyone else reminded of the Satedans?' a frowning Teyla asked the other Athosians after a minute or so of such nonsense.

* * *

_**Note from the Author:**_

_Elements of the end of episode 8:02 of Stargate SG-1 and the start of episode 1:01 of Stargate Atlantis here with a touch more politics at work. __Shen Xiaoyi, Russell Chapman, Jean LaPierre and Richard Woolsey were all IOA members. In this universe the IOA and the UN have more authority over the stargate program and related projects than the United States which is why they can decide who leads the Atlantis Expedition and why Jack O'Neill can end up head of the SGC despite the fact Kinsey is still VP and hates him. __Opening an inter-galactic wormhole requires an 8 symbol address and considerably more power than a regular jaunt between two points in the same galaxy. In episode 2:16 The Fifth Race O'Neill used Ancient knowledge downloaded into his head by a Repository of Knowledge to create a Power Booster Device enabling him to open a wormhole to Ida. Another was made to do the same thing in an alternate dimension in episode 3:06 Point of View as well but since we know that Pegasus is much further away than Ida (it takes far longer to get there even using Asgard hyperdrives) its logical to assume that the booster can't produce enough power to do the job. __The Zero Point Module retrieved from Proclarush Taonas isn't as depleted here as it was in the show (less drones were needed to be fired as a fair chunk of Anubis's fleet was already destroyed by other means) but it's still the only one they have and its a dangerous galaxy so they don't want to drain it opening a wormhole to Atlantis if they can help it. Fortunately thanks to the Tollan there is another means available._

_In SG-1 episode 8:03 Lockdown we found that Anubis wasn't really gone and his "spirit" was still present within a piece of wreckage left over from his ship. In the show it transferred to a Russian officer on a space-station that encountered it but in XSGCOM all the salvage was collected by the Asgard and dumped on Mars. Anubis hijacked one of the team going through the wreckage there and then hijacked an Al'kesh to make his escape (not that anyone knows this yet in-universe). __Newly promoted Brigadier-General Jack O'Neill put a great deal of effort into avoiding paperwork in Season 8, much to the chagrin of Chief Master Sergeant Harriman. His command style whilst running the SGC was as unauthodox as you might have expected. __The Ancient built Stargate Destroyer Anubis attempted to use to destroy the SGC in episode 6:01 Redemption showed that it was possible to overcharge a stargate. Here the Tollan are using ten of their own version as a giant capacitor connected to a version of the Power-Booster in order to open a wormhole to Pegasus. The technology is mainly off-the-shelf and proven so it's not a huge undertaking for them. __When the Tollan first encountered Earth in episode 1:17 Enigma they were going to be held against their will and prompted to hand over their technology. Daniel helped them escape with the assistance of the Nox and relations between Earth and Tollana improved greatly later but any Tollan who was among that group seemed likely to still be harbouring a grudge._

_Given that they are not limited to only one trip to Atlantis I thought an initial survey with MALPs followed later by half the expedition with the rest to come later made sense. They're still facing the problem seen in canon that the Atlantis ZPM's are nearly depleted but they've arrived with a lot more Naquadah Generators (they've got masses of the things thanks to billions of tons of naquada ore and the Orban making them for Earth) so they have the power to keep the city running a while longer. __Colonel Alexi Vaselov appeared in SG-1 episode 8:03 Lockdown. I've decided to have him replace Colonel Marshall Sumner as the initial military commander of the Atlantis Expedition because the XSGCOM universe is rather less US dominated than canon. _Athos was the site of a ruined Ancient City and the home of the Athosians including Teyla Emmagan and Halling. _The Wraith were seen to use mental attacks to panic their human prey and demonstrated other psionic powers in the show too. Being well-used to facing enemies that used such tactics the X-COM infantry were rather less fazed by the situation than they would have been otherwise so they coped better than the soldiers did in canon. Wraith Darts are extremely fragile, they are shot down by far less powerful hand-weapons than an L2-A2 in Stargate Atlantis and given that lasers rifles don't require you to lead the target they should be very effective against the Wraith fighters. That zat'nik'tel discharges work against Wraith is seen in SGA episode 4:17 Midway, they really should have taken zats to Atlantis!_

_Okay XSGCOM are in the Pegasus Galaxy and the Wraith are about to get a very nasty introduction to military competance and Terran weaponry._ :-p


	4. Chapter 4

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – July 2004**

'Not exactly an Avenger but it'll have to do I guess' Sheppard commented, familiarising himself with the controls of "Gateship" as McKay called it. Like the hybridised Sectoid/Goa'uld flight controls of modern Earth-built craft the small vessel utilised an element of pilot mind-control, albeit in what appeared a far more sophisticated fashion, and it was far easier to get the thing working than either man had dared to hope for. Radek Zelenka was watching from near the access port which led down into the room where the stargate was located.

'As soon as we saw these things we guessed they were the local equivalent of goa'uld gate-fighters' McKay told the pilot as Sheppard slowly lifted off and manoeuvred the craft around the hanger. He was getting used to how it handled, it was very smooth.

'Think it's armed?' Sheppard queried.

'Yes, it was the first thing we checked for' McKay replied. Definitely been working for X-COM too long he realised. 'Just don't think about opening fire unless you really mean it' he advised Sheppard. 'You're carrying a small number of the Drone Weapons, there's a launcher on each side of the ship which open out when required' he said. 'The sub-light drive pods do the same.'

Sheppard nodded, he'd have to see what speed he could get it up to. 'Hyperdrive?' he asked.

'No and no shield either' McKay told him.

'You're kidding?' Sheppard responded in surprise.

'It runs on power-cells that recharge when it's docked as far as we can tell' McKay replied, 'a shield would deplete those fast' he continued, 'it's clearly _not_ made for serious combat' he stated.

'Then why arm it?' Sheppard wondered, 'oh wait I've got an idea' he continued, 'Go invisible' he said to the ship.

Zelenka watched as the ship disappeared. 'Cloaking Device' he noted, not too surprising he thought reaching for his radio headset. 'I do not know if it was deliberate Major Sheppard' he said, 'but you just vanished' he continued. 'I apologise we do not have time to upgrade the craft before the mission' he added, a couple of naquadah generators, an Electro-Plasmic Shield and some laser cannon and it might pass muster he decided, pity about the pilot's narrow field of view though, as a dogfighter it was inherently poor on that basis alone.

Using the gate coordinates Lieutenant Ford had memorised they had determined where the alien fighter had taken both the Colonel and the Athosians it had abducted but it turned out to be a stargate floating in orbit above a terraformed world. Fortunately they had sent a MALP not a person ahead to scout but regardless it had initially appeared that the rescue mission was scrubbed until McKay advised them of what they had found in the hanger above.

Weir wasn't completely convinced this was a wise course of action but Sheppard had persuaded her to approve the rescue attempt eventually. He had helped by the firm belief of the Athosians expressed forcefully by Teyla that seeking a peaceful resolution as Weir suggested simply wasn't an option. Humans were nothing but a prey animal in this galaxy, the Wraith being at the top of the food-chain and not likely to negotiate in good faith with their lunch.

This was not to say that the Athosians considered trying to get those taken back from the Wraith any more sane than seeking dialogue with them and Teyla Emmagan their apparent leader was still trying to convince Weir of this in the control room when a number of the children who had been exploring what little of the submerged city was still protected by the shield came running back screaming.

Teyla spun around to face what she assumed was an oncoming threat, incredibly heavy footsteps echoing off the metal deck and walls, when two metal figures each a third again as tall as a man pounded into sight only to be ignored by the Terrans. 'Machines?' she asked Weir in shock.

'Powered Armour' Weir replied. 'You climb into them' she explained as Captain Gaston arrived, still wearing his normal body-armour. 'Not going along Captain?' Weir asked him.

'Not wearing one of those I'm not' Gaston replied, 'great for shooting your way out of a situation but not so good for getting in quietly' he noted. 'You asked for another tactical edge?' he asked her rhetorically. 'How does this do?' he asked. 'Show them' he addressed thin air.

Teyla almost jumped out of her skin when a figure suddenly appeared from nowhere next to her, the female soldier who had been with the ones that went to Athos pressing a control on a device clipped to her belt. 'Personal Cloaking device, sorry if I scared you' the woman said.

'They're only good for a little over two hours between recharging' Gaston told Weir, 'and we've only got four of them unfortunately but I'd say this qualifies as a nice edge wouldn't you?' he asked. 'Only enough room on one of those dinky ships for two PA suits though if we want to leave space for the Colonel and the other abductees on the way home.'

Teyla was still staring at the device the female soldier had used to vanish from sight. 'Is this Ancestor Technology?' she asked in wonder.

'No, this is Earth Tech, based on Goa'uld Tech which was based on a phase-shifted species called the Reetou' Gaston told her. 'Sergeant Nash and Corporal Hafner are in the suits Ma'am, they're my most experienced Troopers' he said. 'Eitam here is a sneaky bitch even without the cloak so she'll lead us in.'

'It's true, I am' Nava agreed, grinning. She had been originally taught her trade by Sayeret Matkal, the elite Israeli Special Forces unit who hadn't exactly lacked for practical experience over the years.

'What's the plan?' Weir asked Gaston.

'Get in there, get our people and bring them home' Gaston replied. 'Kill, maim and otherwise do considerable harm to anything that tries to stop us' he continued. 'Ideally I'd have liked to capture more prisoners too, maybe grab some more Wraith tech to analyse' he said, 'but we can always do that another time and we're short on cargo space this time out.'

'You're very confident Captain' Teyla told him.

'This is what we do' Gaston replied. 'With permission Ma'am if we have a definite go now we should make final preparations' he addressed Weir.

'Go to it' Weir replied and the two X-COM soldiers saluted, turned and headed off to collect the rest of their gear and join the others.

The Wraith had beaten the Ancients because the latter were overconfident in their abilities, secure in the knowledge that they were too powerful to defeat. Fortunately for the Atlantis Expedition it seemed that the Wraith were just as arrogant, if not more so because not only was it ridiculously easy to get to the planet and land the cloaked gateship, or "Puddle Jumper" as Sheppard preferred to call it, but getting into what they assumed was a large Wraith facility would have been a breeze for Sheppard, Ford, Gaston and Eitam even if they _hadn't_ been invisible.

Most of the alien technology seemed organic in base, even more so than that of the Nox perhaps Gaston considered as they searched through the structure. There were hardly any Wraith to be found wandering the corridors and avoiding them was easy as they picked up the pace, realising that time was ticking down for their personal cloaks.

The gateship had provided some kind of portable life-sign detector which helped matters considerably although only Sheppard could use it. Between that device and their own motion-trackers they had little trouble locating the Athosian prisoners whilst keep a good distance from the opposition.

Dispatching the single guard near the cell where the abductees were being held was as simple as Eitam walking up to him and shooting him twice in the back with the zat'nik'tel discharger fitted to her P3-A1. As he slumped to the ground dead she turned off her cloak as did the others for now and greeting the three astonished Athosians in the cell they determined what had happened to the Colonel who wasn't with them.

Some distance away Colonel Vaselov was proving a surprise to the Wraith Queen, not reacting as any human she had encountered before did. For a start he was stronger willed than most and resisted her attempts to get into his mind for a while before she finally managed to break through his mental barriers.

'What do you call your world?' she asked him, Vaselov forced to his knees before her by psionic influence.

'Earth' Vaselov replied eventually, still trying to resist her.

'It is not among our stars' the Wraith Queen stated.

'No' Vaselov confirmed through gritted teeth.

'Tell me of Earth. How many more are there of your kind?' the queen asked. 'Thousands?' she queried. 'Millions?'

Vaselov tried to think of something else, anything else but in vain.

'More' the Wraith Queen read from his mind in triumph. 'Our feeding ground has not been so rich in ten thousand years' she said.

'Feeding ground?' Vaselov repeated, he had already witnessed what that meant. One of the Athosians had been consumed by this alien, it had sucked the life right out of him somehow. 'You're telling me you would travel to my world to feed upon my people?'

'Of course' the Wraith Queen replied.

Once again the human she now knew was from another galaxy surprised her. Instead of looking distraught he started laughing. 'We might have just gone home' he said, 'but now we'll have to do something about you' he told her. 'You just signed the death-warrant for your entire race' he declared.

There was a certainty in his mind that concerned the Wraith Queen for a brief moment but she soon dismissed it, the Lanteans had believed they would defeat the Wraith too at first but look at what happened to them. 'You will tell me the location of your world' she told him.

'Don't worry about looking for Earth' Vaselov replied. 'You _should_ be worrying about Earth coming to look for _you_ ' he told the alien.

Already stripped of his body armour the Wraith Queen had no problem feeding from him and knowing the process was indescribably painful she slammed her palm against his chest and began to do so. 'Tell me' she insisted as he seemed to be visibly aging, screaming as he did.

The Wraith paused for a moment to give him a chance to reply. Vaselov had always wondered if he would break under torture and he was pleased to discover that the answer so far was no. 'Eat me' he responded with a snarl although he doubted the American phrase he had learned from the movies would be as insulting to one of these monsters.

'With pleasure' the queen replied with a sneer and began again.

Such was the agony it took Vaselov a moment to realise that after another two seconds the screaming was no longer his own, he forced his eyes back into focus and saw the alien writhing on the floor with an X-COM stun-baton pressed against her. Adding the guts of a goa'uld torture rod into the thing looked like it was paying off as the creature howled in pain, light seeming to be spewing from her mouth and eye sockets.

Vaselov looked around and saw that the Wraith guards who had been nearby were now lying dead or unconscious where they had been previously standing, Captain Gaston kneeling covering the exits with his P3-A1. 'No offence Colonel but you look like shit' Sheppard told Vaselov, removing the rod from the queen. 'You've got a date with a sarcophagus Sir' he said, the Colonel looked like he was forty or fifty years older now and frail for even that age.

'She read my mind' Vaselov gasped.

'So we guessed' Sheppard replied, moving to help him up. They had left Ford and Eitam with the Athosians, getting from there to here had been simple with the cloaks.

'You need to get out of here' Vaselov told them. 'You can't move fast with me in this condition' he said, barely able to stand, grimacing against the pain in his chest.

'Give him a couple of shots of stimulants and a dose of painkiller from your medikit' Gaston advised, 'it'll either kill him or get him mobile.'

'Do it' Vaselov ordered as Sheppard looked at the medikit doubtfully.

The Wraith Queen was starting to recover as Sheppard obeyed orders, injecting the Russian Colonel with enough drugs to make a crippled narcoleptic sloth run a marathon. 'We can't carry this bitch with us and I don't think she'll come quietly' Gaston observed, indicating the wraith queen who was now trying to get up again.

'Shoot her' Vaselov ordered sounding less strained. Sheppard had given him the painkiller first which had helped considerably.

'You don't know what you have done. We are merely the caretakers for those that sleep. When I die, the others will awaken' the wraith hissed at them. 'All of them' she added.

'Great' Gaston replied, 'Can't make Commander one day without plenty of kills' he said blowing a hole through her chest the size of a football with his plasma-rifle. 'What?' he asked the other two now looking at him. 'I'm thinking long-term career prospects' he said before Vaselov took a few tentative steps and decided he was now able to move under his own steam.

Sheppard's life-sign detector started to go nuts, he stared at it for a moment. 'I think about a million Wraith just woke up' he said with concern.

'We'll need a distraction to get out of here' the Colonel replied, taking a plasma-pistol he was offered. His heart was pounding in his chest and he hoped he wasn't about to go into cardiac arrest.

'We planted charges Sir' Gaston responded, gunning down a pair of Wraith in bone-like face-masks that came charging into the queen's chamber. 'We really don't want to still be inside this place when we trigger the big ones though' he added, getting ready to move.

'What yield?' Vaselov asked.

'Naquadah/Pottassium Heavy Demolition Charges, two kilotons apiece' Sheppard replied, reaching for his radio headset. 'Ford blow the C4 in thirty seconds, Nash we're still probably going to need some help getting out of here' he said.

'_Good, I was getting really bored waiting out here_ ' the sergeant replied just before Lieutenant Ford remote triggered the charges of plastic explosives they had placed in a few spots as they went.

The Wraith were terrible soldiers, their strength, resilience to physical damage and the lack of decent opposition had led to too much headlong charging in and not enough tactics. The sheer stupidity of their average grunt didn't help much either and as they went through the ship P3-A1 fire slaughtered every hostile alien in their path. The detonation of the C4 had caused added confusion so that even the brighter ones couldn't get organised and when something resembling resistance to the escape was put together the Wraith were horrified by the arrival of two metal clad titans in their midst coming from the other direction. The Powered Armour suits smashed them aside through brute force as much as they mowed them down with obscenely powerful energy weapons. Wraith were strong, far more so than humans, but they weren't remotely strong enough to go hand-to-hand with something like that.

Wraith hand-weapons were designed to stun, not kill or cause much material damage. X-COM Powered Armour was conversely designed to provide protection against weaponry that could destroy heavily armoured vehicles. Soon dozens then hundreds of dead Wraith littered the ground wherever Nash and Hafner strode providing fire-support to the others, an L2-A3 Laser Rifle running straight off the suits naquadah generator in one hand and a P3-A1 Heavy Plasma Rifle in the other as they ruthlessly cleared the exit route. In different circumstances the Wraith would have resorted to using grenades but this was not an option given where they were. After enough of their ranks had fallen a decision was taken to let the humans leave and just let the Darts deal with them, there was only one way they could be headed after all. As the fire-fight ended Eitam took the opportunity to utilise her available source of labour and the Athosians found themselves being handed as many Wraith weapons to carry as they could manage as they were led to safety.

Reaching the Puddle-Jumper unmolested Sheppard and the others headed skywards, Ford remote-triggering the next set of charges. These ones were rather more impressive than C4 as an enormous fireball brighter than a thousand suns lit up the surrounding area. 'Serious secondary explosion Sir' Sheppard declared as a blast wave rocked the jumper.

'Bring us around' Vaselov ordered and as the jumper circled miles off a massive mushroom cloud reached for the sky, it was much larger than the demolition charges could have managed. 'I feel better already' he declared, 'nice ship' he added appreciatively as Sheppard pulled up the nose and headed for orbit.

They found numerous Wraith Darts waiting around the orbiting stargate. The Wraith couldn't see the cloaked puddle jumper but as soon as the escapees remote dialled the gate the fighters would know where they were going and could lay down fire along its approach route. 'Dumbshits' Sheppard said, laughing as manoeuvred close enough to dial the gate from above and behind and sent a signal once the wormhole was established. The Darts were firing where they assume he would be but he had no intention of trying to go through the stargate yet, he needed to thin out the opposition first and they watched the firework display for a while. 'We need to capture one of those fighters' Sheppard observed, 'remind me to put in a request to get a Zat-Cannon shipped from home' he said.

Five minutes after the outgoing wormhole closed again the tell-tale splash of an incoming one preceded something emerging from it. Sheppard had requested some assistance from the other side and had been waiting patiently at a safe distance for it to arrive. If in doubt resort to the nuclear option, it was the X-COM way.

It took a multi-megaton thermonuclear detonation to destroy a stargate but Wraith Darts were far more fragile and when the naquadah reactor set to overload which Atlantis had thrown through from their side exploded with a mere twenty kiloton yield the gate was undamaged although the unshielded Darts and Wraith pilots nearby did not fare very well. Nuclear explosions in the vacuum of space are not really very impressive to see, there's no long-lasting fireball or much real blast to speak of but the hard radiation they put out still makes it inadvisable to be anywhere near them.

Sheppard dispatched most of the few remaining Darts with Ancient Drones, the firing controls being as simple as thinking "kill that" he was glad to find out as the cloaked puddle-jumper took out the enemy fighters. 'Anyone that wouldn't want to do this job is insane' he declared as they made another high-speed run at the stargate, dialling Atlantis and sending the GDO code to tell the city to drop the gate shield on their side before going through at an inadvisably fast velocity. A couple of Darts tried to pursue but splashed against the re-established shield on arrival. "Like bugs on a windshield" as Sheppard put it.

The Terrans had come to the Pegasus Galaxy and so far the Wraith were not happy about it.

* * *

**Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – July 2004**

Brigadier-General Jack O'Neill was re-reading the equipment request that the Atlantis Expedition had radioed over after confirming that the second batch of personnel and supplies should be sent through. It was a pain in the ass that they could only send things through one way for now, and then only once a week because of how long it took the Tollan Stargate Capacitor to charge, but at least the people in Pegasus weren't completely cut-off.

'Three F-302X Fighters with full weapons load-out' O'Neill read aloud for the benefit of Lieutenant-Colonel Carter sat across his desk. 'One Avenger Assault Transport with same' he continued. 'Twelve Heavy-Weapon MALPs, Twenty-Five P3-A1 Heavy Plasma Rifles with thirty clips each, Twenty-Five L2-A3 Laser Rifles with five liquid-naquadah power-cells each, Twenty-Five Stinger Missiles with nuclear warheads, ten crates Staff-Rifles, ten crates concussion grenades, ten crates fragmentation grenades' he said, pausing to sigh. 'One-hundred and twenty Goa'uld Shock-Grenades' he resumed, 'forty Naquadah/Potassium Demolition Charges and twelve Mark VIII high-yield naquadah-enhanced thermonuclear warheads.'

Carter laughed. 'On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me...' she started to sing then stopped as he directed a look her way that said making the jokes was _his_ job.

'That's just the weaponry they requested for delivery _next week_ ' O'Neill told her incredulously once she stopped kidding around. 'Long-term they want another five Grim Reapers, two more Avengers, Laser Cannon and Staff-Gatlings on Air-Defence mounts' he said. '_And_ if we can manage it they've asked for a complete AEGIS System, assuming the Navy will give it up and we can fit it all through the stargate for assembly like the aircraft.'

'Looking at the diagram they sent back the central tower would be a good place to mount the radar arrays at least' Carter observed. The Atlantis Team had managed to figure out how to return the city to the surface before the power for the shield ran out, it was the obvious solution given that the Ancients had submerged the thing to start with but that wasn't going to stop McKay crowing about it she knew.

'I don't like the sound of these Wraith' O'Neill said, putting down the list. 'If these guys beat the Ancients then we've got to assume they're a lot more dangerous than our initial encounter with them indicates' he said.

'If they haven't fought a proper war against decent opposition in ten-thousand years it's not surprising our people caught them off-guard' Carter responded, 'but unless we've been drastically overrating how smart the Ancients were then I agree the Wraith represent a serious threat Sir' she concurred.

'I've got to sign off on this request' O'Neill complained, at least it wouldn't be coming totally out of his budget though, X-COM and others would have to share the financial burden. 'They asked for fifty more naquadah generators and two more sarcophagi as well' he muttered, 'those things don't come cheap you know' he added more loudly.

'We only sent them out with one Sir and according to the medical report from Doctor Beckett it's likely that Colonel Vaselov will be enjoying several hours a week in the thing for the next two or three months' she noted. 'The Wraith feeding process caused severe damage to his physiology.'

'Space Vampires' O'Neill said, rolling his eyes at the cliché. Unfortunately for Vaselov you had to minimise exposure to a sarcophagus and ideally space out your time spent in one as long as possible because it would screw up your mind as it repaired your body. The Russian would spend the next eight to twelve weeks getting progressively younger until he was back to his correct physical age, or maybe a little younger if he was lucky. For now he apparently looked a well-worn eighty-five, was walking with the assistance of a cane and some strong pharmaceuticals and it was theorised that the Russian he kept spouting in an angry tone were vows that when he was better and sitting in the cockpit of an F-302 then a large number of Wraith were going to be made to pay for the fact he currently had to get up three times a night to take a leak.

The situation in the Milky Way Galaxy itself was less of an unknown although it was extremely fluid with several competing factions vying for supremacy. Only the day before news had come of a three-way battle being fought on P2X-887 between the forces of Baal, Camulus and the Free Jaffa as they each tried to seize control of an underground facility that had once belonged to Anubis. In the end the Free Jaffa had won the day, though only because they had the advantage of orbital superiority, bringing up the Ha'tak they had seized on Erebus and blasting the opposition into oblivion from above.

Camulus had come off worst. He only had a few remaining Jaffa and those not killed by Kull Warriors serving Baal had been blown to hell by capital staff-cannon hurtling down from the sky. Trying to take the base had been a desperate move which had ended badly, he was now down to a single Ha'tak carrying less than half a full inventory of deathgliders, three Al'kesh and less than five hundred troops.

As for Baal, although this was another tactical defeat he could absorb the losses far more easily thanks to greater strategic depth and a still recovering and expanding military. Being largely pragmatic he was now not only fielding greater and greater numbers of Kull Warriors as shock-troops his second-line Jaffa soldiers were also starting to wield increasing numbers of Staff-Rifles too, greatly increasing their own combat effectiveness. Moreover he had both Thoth and Nerus reluctantly cooperating in a project to back-engineer a chappa'nok'kek gate-fighter captured from Lord Yu in preparation for making an improved model and he was hoping eventually to equip all his non-Kull forces with the zat'nik'tel proof and plasma resistant body armour originally developed by Sokar. The Tau'ri had repeatedly demonstrated the advantages of equipping their forces with the full panoply of the best available weaponry and Baal was resolved to field an army that could finally take those upstarts on and beat them.

The Free Jaffa had technically won the battle but to their annoyance found the base had been stripped out already, making it a waste of what resources they had devoted towards the fight. With most of the available Free Jaffa and their Tok'ra allies and advisors fighting what had become a battle of attrition with Moloc and his fanatically loyal armies they couldn't afford to waste their efforts winning victories that meant nothing and as they left the planet they vowed to be more careful in picking their targets next time.

After O'Neill signed off the supply request from Atlantis he and Carter headed for the gate room where he wanted to have a final word with SG-2 before they headed out to P8F-809. It was only supposed to be a routine exploration mission but these days those frequently turned into firefights, even if it was only with the armed Reconnaissance Drones doing the same thing for the opposition. Although technically they were only at war with Baal, Bastet, Kali and Amaterasu not the other System Lords at the moment skirmishes with supposedly allied Jaffa loyal to Lord Yu and the rest were still taken place sporadically too although the Tau'ri tried not to start them.

'Just remember, if they look like they're going to shoot, shoot them first' O'Neill advised Ferretti who had just finished checking over his team. 'I don't care what mark is on their forehead' he said then paused. 'For the sake of diplomacy you could try and just zat them unless they're with Baal or one of his chicks' he added after thinking about it.

'Yes Sir' Ferretti responded. 'Any other final orders Sir?' he asked.

'Try to get back well before the President is due to arrive for his tour' O'Neill replied. 'Judging from the pictures the MALP sent back P8F-809 is swampy and you might need more than one shower before putting on your dress uniform' he said.

Ferretti sighed, never should have called tails when he and Reynolds flipped to see whether SG-2 or SG-3 would get this mission he thought regretfully. While he and his USAF team got to wallow in the mud those damn lucky jarheads were right now escorting a team to the near-paradise world of Argos. The goa'uld Pelops had been inducing rapid aging with nanotechnology there until SG-1 ended the experiment a few years back and it was wondered if a detailed cellular analysis of the people there might show a resemblance to what had been done to Colonel Vaselov.

'Watch out for mosquitoes' Carter told Ferretti. 'I thought the camera on the MALP was zoomed in for a second until I realised the one that flew past it was really that big' she said, holding her hands apart like she was a fisherman describing the one that got away.

'You might want to zat those things too' O'Neill advised SG-2 who were collectively looking less and less enthused about the mission every second.

'Okay I've done my job, got them raring to go, so now I'm thinking a nice brunch' O'Neill told Carter, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. 'Carry on Lieutenant-Colonel' he told Ferretti before heading off with Carter in tow.

The rest of SG-2 were directing accusing looks at their CO as the gate dialled up. 'Alright, alright' he conceded, 'I'll pick up the tab at the bar for the next month' he offered by way of apology.

'I hear that all the women on Argos wear skimpy outfits and put out' one of his team complained to another. 'Even the General got laid when he was there and he's _old_ .'

'He got a _lot_ older and nearly _died_ the way I heard it' another replied as the wormhole engaged and they dejectedly stomped up the ramp. Those safe-sex lectures about using precautions should include warnings about nanotech STD's when you joined the SGC he thought.

'Yeah but he didn't and the chick was supposed to be _really_ hot though' the first pointed out. 'Marines _like_ to wallop in mud, _they_ should be there dealing with mosquitoes the size of vampire bats' he added.

'Mud is good for the complexion they say' the other one said more brightly.

'Getting laid cleared up my acne when I was sixteen too and I know which treatment I'd prefer' the first stated as they stepped through the gate.

* * *

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – July 2004**

'For the last time I am not a ghost' Tesserarius Travoc insisted as the Athosian children, a boy and a girl both under ten cowered behind Elizabeth Weir having run to tell the person in charge what they had found. He had only recently arrived in Atlantis with the second batch of personnel and hadn't dealt with the Athosians yet having been running from place to place trying to help out the Earth scientists who were in over their heads given the sophistication of much of the technology here.

'He walked through a wall, he's one of the spirits of the ancestors that haunt this place' the little girl insisted, tugging on Weir's jacket.

Weir was trying her best not to laugh at the expression on the Tollan Officers face. 'Did you walk through a wall?' she asked him.

Travoc sighed. 'Doctor Grodin reported they had found a room with a broken door mechanism' he replied, 'he asked if I could see what was in there before they bothered to try and force the door open' he explained. 'I checked it out and when I came back out these children were there and then they started screaming about the Ancestors.'

'So you _did_ walk through a wall and then chased them trying to explain you're _not_ actually a disembodied spirit that has dwelt in Atlantis for the last ten-thousand years' Weir checked.

'They wouldn't listen' Travoc replied, starting to feel extremely embarrassed by the situation. Children on Tollana were used to seeing people phase-shift through solid matter and they didn't believe in the supernatural either.

'Don't look in his eyes, he'll take your soul' the little boy informed Weir, trying to pull her away from the apparition.

'He's not a ghost he's another person from my galaxy who came here in the stargate like I did' Weir told the children.

'But he's not dressed like you, he's shiny' the little girl pointed out.

'It's a Tollan Hazardous Environment Suit' Travoc responded indicating his silver one-piece outfit. 'I had no idea what was in the room' he explained. 'It's just special clothing honestly' he told the children.

'But he walked through a wall' the girl pointed out again, that was a slam-dunk argument for him being a ghost as far as she was concerned.

Travoc looked around and picked up a pen that was lying on Weirs desk. 'See' he said 'not a ghost' he told the children.

'Spirits can move things with strange powers like Wraith can' the boy declared.

'I'm not telekinetic' Travoc responded in exasperation, the Tollan were still trying to figure out how both that and telepathy even _worked_, they didn't think it was a real phenomena at all until the Tau'ri demonstrated Psi-Amps to them causing Tollan physicists to go back and take another long hard look at their equations.

Weir realised that this could go on for a while if she didn't try something more dramatic. 'Travoc there isn't from Terra like I am' she said. 'He comes from another world in my galaxy that is very advanced called Tollana' she told the children. 'They invented machines which mean they can walk through walls' she explained, 'that's all he did, he used a machine to do what you saw.'

'Really?' the boy asked doubtfully. He had seen the Terrans use some amazing machines but this was something else entirely.

'Yes, and if someone holds his hand when he uses the machine they can walk through a wall with him' Weir said patiently. 'He's going to walk me through a wall to show you and then if you feel brave you can try it too' she promised.

'I'm not a children's entertainer' Travoc responded quickly, if these two got to try out phase-shifting then every damn kid in the city would want a go he knew.

'No but you _are_ a soldier and the Curia placed you under my command for the duration of your assignment here so you can consider it an order if you like' Weir told him.

'I doubt the High Chancellor saw my role here as being other than providing technical assistance' Travoc replied evenly.

'Do you _like_ the idea of children running away screaming from you?' Weir inquired, pulling away from the children and holding out her hand.

'No' Travoc replied reluctantly, before taking it and using his free hand to touch the controls on the device on his arm. 'We'll start out by shifting through your desk' he told her, better to just get this over and done with he realised.

As it turned out Trevoc wasn't the only person providing great entertainment that day. After volunteering to try out Doctor Beckett's ATA gene-therapy Rodney McKay found he was now able to activate Ancient Devices and he promptly tried out a prototype Lantean Personal Forcefield he had discovered in a laboratory. After testing the thing in a number of other ways, including getting shot by projectile weapons and an L2-A3, McKay started delighting the crowd by throwing himself off balconies, the forcefield cushioning against inertia too.

Not much more than a locket-sized green crystal the personal forcefield was far more effective than the goa'uld ones they had encountered before. Nothing could penetrate the shield but air regardless of velocity and although this proved to be an issue because he couldn't eat or drink either Zelenka was confident that once McKay died of thirst they should be able to retrieve the device for analysis because it would drop off his corpse.

Knowing that they could readily bring him back in a sarcophagus was not however improving McKay's mood at the prospect of a drawn-out painful death. A suggestion by Sheppard that they speed up the process by putting him in a sealed chamber and pumping all the air out was not greeted any more favourably however and after a few hours he was really starting to get on everyone's nerves.

Now resting on the surface after a careful voyage from the bottom of the ocean Atlantis was truly a wonder to behold. It had taken over an hour to gradually raise the city because McKay wanted to avoid causing structural damage to the areas not protected by the shield, but when the towers slowly pierced the surface water gushing from them it was still an amazing sight if not as dramatic as it could have been at a faster pace of ascent.

Atlantis wasn't all that large, smaller than the flagships of Apophis or Anubis had been and the population couldn't have ever been more than a large town but what it lacked in volume it was already making up for in discoveries. Small rooms first believed to be mere elevators were soon found to be transporter booths similar in principle to Aschen designs indicating that after millions of years the Ancients had finally done better than the Rings. There were several laboratories full of fascinating though so-far utterly unknown technologies, Beckett had a large infirmary and had recruited a small team of scientists to try and figure out how most of the equipment there worked and Colonel Vaselov was pleased to find that the city had a nice secure holding cell which was currently the dwelling place of the Wraith prisoner who had been shot down on Athos.

The Wraith had been extremely uncooperative and had done little more than sneer when asked questions. This attitude had changed more than slightly when he was forced into a chair by two Troopers in Powered Armour, strapped down and then subjected to the painful but highly effective X-COM interrogation technique generally described as "Mind Rape". Weir wasn't too happy but it was standard operating procedure and she did spend an hour before extreme measures were employed trying to persuade the Dart Pilot to be more forthcoming because it really was in his best interests not to be stubborn.

Unfortunately they soon learned that the Wraith had a caste system and although not one of the lowest caste the pilot was nowhere near as intelligent or well-informed as a Wraith Queen or one of the senior military or scientific ranks in the aliens hierarchy would have been. He had moderate psionic power, this being neutralised for safeties sake after a brain-scan by the simple application of some electrodes into his skull, and a reasonably high IQ but if they wanted to find out more about the enemy they were going to need to capture someone higher up the chain of command.

Vaselov was surprised to discover that the large facility he had been held at was in fact a grounded Wraith starship. These ranged in scale from what the pilot described as "Scout Ships" through "Cruisers" which were over two and a half kilometres in length to the largest "Hive Ships" that measured in at an astonishing eleven kilometres end-to-end dwarfing even the flagship of Anubis. The only saving grace was that the Wraith didn't use protective shields on their vessels so destroying the things with the relatively diminutive Earth warships might still be possible, just throw enough gigaton-plus warheads at the big bastards until they come apart seemed the best solution if it came to a fight.

The Ancients, Ancestors, Lanteans or whatever you wanted to call them had primarily relied on their shield-penetrating Drone Weapons for anti-ship weaponry which was why the Wraith had adopted armour not shields as capital-ship protection. Why waste reactor output keeping a barrier charged which the enemy could shoot through easily anyway? Far better, the Wraith had realised, to use what power generation you had to increase your own offensive capabilities or when not in combat use it to drive the ludicrously sized engines you needed to push heavily armoured ships the size of a large asteroid through space.

The Wraith were not interestingly a completely united group however which surprised the Athosians who had considered them as being less divided than they actually were. In reality the Wraith were divided into several clans, each having several lower-level queens ruled over by a dominant one and each clan controlling a certain territory. A shortage of available food meant that the vast majority of Wraith from each group hibernated for centuries between periods of mass culling, the human population being allowed to recover in number afterwards. The survivors would be watched over by a small number of caretakers than would make sure that no human world ever advanced enough to become a military threat whilst the majority of Wraith slumbered. The next mass cull was not due for several more decades although it was possible the destruction of a Hive might mean cranky Wraith waking up early wondering what the hell was going on and who was making all the noise outside.

Leaning on his walking stick Colonel Vaselov turned from the Wraith towards Major Sheppard stood beside him. 'What do you think?' he asked.

'I think we should find out where as many of the Hives and Cruisers are as we can, sneak up on them in cloaked Puddle-Jumpers and nuke the ever-loving shit out them with the biggest warheads we can get hold of before they realise there's a new sheriff in town Sir' Sheppard replied. 'Once we've knocked them down to size then we deal with what's left.'

Vaselov smiled viciously. 'I told the bitch we would be coming for them' he replied nodding his agreement with the plan.

Sheppard smiled back. 'You know at first this guy thought we were the Ancients returning' he told Vaselov. 'The Wraith have always expected it one day he said.

The Russian Colonel laughed and turned back towards the prisoner. 'You wish' he told the alien.

* * *

_**Note from the Author:**_

_In the canon SGA episode 1:02 Rising Sheppard and the rescue part had little trouble getting aboard what they didn't know was a grounded Wraith ship. Add in the X-COM copy of Nirrti's Personal Cloak and some Motion Scanners to help avoid Wraith anyway and they could make their way around easily. The Lantean Gateship or "Puddle Jumper" is a useful little craft but the lack of a shield, proper power-plant or weapons beyond a few drones limits its combat usefulness. It has a sophisticated cloaking device of its own that appears harder to detect than the Goa'uld version however. __The XSGCOM version of the Side-Handle Baton (AKA the "Hockey Stick") contains both the electrodes of a Stun Rod and a Goa'uld Pain Stick. Having the latter function applied to the Wraith Queen while she was torturing/feeding from Colonel Vaselov seemed a suitable outcome! __Wraith personal weaponry such as the Stunner Rifle is designed to take their prey alive, it causes neural disruption that stuns and paralyses but it doesn't cause much physical damage making it less than ideal for use against X-COM Powered Arnour. They do have powerful grenades but they wouldn't be likely to be setting them off on their own ship. __An overloaded naquadah-generator produces an explosion slightly greater than the Nagasaki Bomb. Not enough to destroy a stargate but it wouldn't be something you'd want to be a few yards from in an unarmoured, unshielded, Wraith Dart._

_P8F-809 was a world that was mentioned as being a mission destinsation for SG-3 in SG-1 episode 8:04 Zero Hour. Here it's SG-2 that are heading there instead whilst SG-3 gets another destination. P2X-887 was a world which once belonged to Anubis. In the show Jaffa who had previously served him told the SGC about a base there and SG-1 was dispatched to check it out but here the more powerful Free-Jaffa/Tok'ra Alliance decided to investigate themselves. Camulus is still stronger than he was in canon at this point (no asking the Tau'ri for asylum) but he's slipping fast. __The rapid aging of the people on Argos was featured in SG-1 episode 1:09 Brief Candle. The goa'uld Pelops had used nanites to speed up the aging of the people there as an experiment. O'Neill picked up a few of these after an "encounter" with Kynthia. Now that the nanites aren't a problem I could see the planet being a popular destination for SG Teams (certainly more so than a swamp)._

_It's mentioned in SGA episode 1:03 Hide and Seek that some of the Athosians think that the ghosts of the Ancestors remain in Atlantis. Given that I can't imagine two of their children reacting well to watching a Tollan wearing one of the silver protective suits we saw them wearing in SG-1 episode 1:17 Enigma phase-shifting through a wall very well! Travoc is the sole representative of Tollana on the expedition, he's a military engineer with far more off-world experience than most of his people, he's also more used to dealing with Earth people than most and being in the Tollan military the Curia can just order him to go! __The Lantean Personal Shield McKay found is something that X-COM would kill for (a lot). It was far in advance of its goa'uld equivalent installed in the Kara Kesh (hand device). The transporters used in Atlantis are a step up from the Rings but the Aschen had something at least as good so they wouldn't have anyone drooling. __Doctor Beckett developed a gene-therapy that enabled people not carrying the ATA gene to activate Ancient technology, if not as well as natural carriers of the gene like the Doctor himself or especially Sheppard or O'Neill. __Wraith are not equal, either in intellect or station in life. The warrior caste is more muscular but not as bright as the officers and the Queen appears to possess greater mental abilities. As a society they are not unified and later in the series a shortage of humans to feed off bought them into a state of civil-war as different Wraith collective squabbled over their food resource._


	5. Chapter 5

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**Temporary United Worlds Building – Heliopolis (P3X-972) – August 2004**

You couldn't actually say that Lya was angry, the Nox _never_ got angry, but she was definitely annoyed which by the standards of her species was noteworthy in itself as she gave the representatives of Earth, Optrica and Langara in turn a look of displeasure, and indeed disappointment. 'The continued and escalating use by certain members of this alliance of violent means to solve problems that might have been solved through peaceful negotiation is abhorrent' she declared, earning a nod of support from the Gadmeer representative sat beside her, the reptilian alien wearing an environment suit to cope with what was to him a poisonous atmosphere.

The atmospheric conditions outside the huge geodesic dome they were in weren't too pleasant either by any standards. The world was wracked by storms and although the Asgard were planning to do something about that eventually, using the terraforming techniques they had learned after centuries of studying their copy of the Ancient database, they were too busy restoring their own civilisation to divert much effort towards a planetary beautification project.

'The Optrican people have never found there to be any point in trying to parlay with deluded goa'uld-worshipping religious fanatics' Jyran the new representative of that world responded curtly, returning Lya's look with a glare of her own. 'Soren and his growing band of rabble-rousing fundamentalists were well on the way to destabilising the Rand Protectorate and that might have conceivably even triggered a nuclear exchange with their neighbours in the Caledonian Federation' she said.

'The governments of both nations on Tegalus requested our assistance in crushing the attempted rebellion and the process is well in hand' Lucia Tarthus representing Langara spoke up. 'Soren will soon be captured and behind bars and then we can look forward to aiding the two nations to an accord such as was reached on my own world and welcoming their world into this august body' she said.

'Earth has already offered technical assistance to both nations as a means of encouraging their cooperation' Joseph Faxon for the Tau'ri noted. 'More modern electronics, medicines and means of power-generation will drastically improve the lives of the population and should help get them over the shock of finding their way in the galaxy after so many years of isolation' he said optimistically.

'The Tollan wish to remind our allies of the danger of providing advanced technology to societies that may not be ready for them' Omoc interjected, ever the old-school Tollan which could be why the Curia had asked him to take the role as their permanent Ambassador to the United Worlds. He was a symbol of continuity and besides which if he was on Heliopolis he was out of their hair more.

'We are being careful to ensure that we don't advance them too fast just as the Tollan have been in their contacts with Langara' Faxon responded.

'Optrica has as yet only provided military assistance and agrees with the provisional timetable laid down by Earth for giving the people of Tegalus access to new technologies' Jyran said.

Lucia Tarthus smiled. 'Given that my own world is generally less advanced than Tegalus there isn't much danger of Langara having much impact on them' she said.

'I would think that your deployment of psionic soldiers had quite enough impact in itself' Freyr, there for the Asgard, replied wryly.

'The civil liberties violations are an issue that the Tollan Curia have already raised directly with Langara, Earth and Optrica' Omoc said, his tone indicating he did not approve in the slightest.

'The use of Psionic Amplifiers to weed out terrorists and their sympathisers broke the back of the Bedrosian resistance in less than three weeks' Jyran responded. 'Thousands of lives have already been saved and as many, if not far more, could have been lost on Tegalus had Optrica and Langara not dispatched a few of our experienced anti-insurgency teams to deal with the developing situation there' she said.

'Absolutely' Ambassador Tarthus agreed. The success of Langaran soldiers trained in psionic warfare and equipped with Earth-supplied Psi-Amps in aiding their Optrican friends crush the Nefertum worshipping holdouts in Bedrosia who had been fighting a vicious terrorist campaign against the soldiers trying to prevent the country falling into anarchy was unquestioned. The Optricans were hoping to formalise their annexation of the continent very soon and then begin to rebuild the shattered infrastructure, it would likely take years and cost a fortune but at least now they weren't losing dozens of young men and women every day to bombs planted by religious fanatics. Being able to read the minds of suspected resistance sympathisers had been decisive in Bedrosia and now the Rand Protectorate and as a bonus being able to help their allies in this way had done wonders for Langaran self-esteem.

Across P3X-972 teams of archaeologists and scientists under the leadership of Ernest Littlefield and Catherine Langford were still searching through long-abandoned ruins, looking for any remaining Ancient technology or artefacts, but they had enjoyed little luck so far and the mission was likely to be scrubbed soon with the resources directed towards the Atlantis Expedition instead. The symbolism of the United Worlds having a permanent meeting place where the old Alliance of Four Great Races had met ensured that the world would not be abandoned, but other than a few diplomats and support staff it would soon be an emptier place. The steel, glass and plastic dome that military engineers from Earth had constructed as a temporary UW Building would be replaced by a far grander structure in time but for now it would do, and it did keep the rain out.

Lya was less than mollified by the fact it seemed to work very well, it was still monstrous to consider that Langaran and Optrican soldiers were being used to crush dissent on a planet that was only discovered by accident three months before, a Tau'ri reconnaissance robot having rolled out of what the people of the Rand Protectorate had considered an interesting museum piece. 'The Nox agree with the Tollan that the ends do not justify the means' she said. 'Kicking down the doors of people that will not voluntarily agree to psionic screening and forcing them to comply is not the behaviour of a civilised society' she declared. 'We were willing to countenance it as a temporary measure in Bedrosia when the civilian death toll became too high but the situation in the Rand Protectorate had not yet degenerated to the state of near-anarchy and widespread bloodshed which is the only circumstance in which such tyrannical measures can be morally justified.'

'Would you prefer detention without trial or torture of suspects because that is what the Rand Protectorate was considering before we intervened' Jyran replied. 'Our actions might have been pre-emptive but they were hardly premature, the situation was spiralling towards a possible collapse of the entire state and now thanks to a _limited_ application of force and a _temporary_ curtailment of the right to privacy Tegalus can look forward to joining the galactic community and not nuclear armageddon' she said firmly.

Kalan the Orbanian Ambassador reached for a glass of water. 'My government has instructed me to abstain if the Nox or Gadmeer go ahead with requesting a vote of censure against the involved worlds in this matter' he said, taking a sip. 'But as a neutral party as yet uninvolved Orban is happy to offer to mediate the negotiations between Rand and Caledonia that we all hope will lead to a disarmament of the weapons they currently have pointed at each other' he continued. 'I have already discussed this with the representatives of Pangar and Tagrea and they agree with ourselves that although the rights and wrongs of the intervention into the internal affairs of Rand can be argued indefinitely our priority must be for the United Worlds to try not to present such a belligerent face to a future member.'

'Belligerent?' Ambassador Tarthus responded. 'You should all be grateful that your histories are peaceful enough that you are still so naive' she said.

Joseph Faxon frowned. 'Although Earth is willing to use military force my people would not regard themselves as belligerent' he observed.

'I meant no offence, I merely meant in terms of perception' Kalan said quickly. Jyran the Optrican representative was giving him a very displeased look as well.

Miles Hagan watched the players around the chamber with interest. The power, authority and standing of the big conglomerates within Hebridan society had been spelled out very concisely by the fact that the government had requested the former President of the Tech Con Group himself to represent them at the United Worlds after the rumours that he was retiring proved correct. He was a businessman by background, unlike the mixture of professional diplomats, politicians, bureaucrats and military men who otherwise made up this body, but other than the lack of actual decision-making and the long boring speeches sometimes he felt like he back in the cut and thrust of corporate politics. There were power-blocks, alliances within the alliance formed of the like-minded and those with overlapping spheres of interest and right now those who preferred interventionism, both military and in terms of development were in the ascendant.

Being of mixed human and serrakin parentage, it took an awful lot of genetic engineering to manage that feat, Hagan had already noticed that the Aschen delegate Mollem seemed to harbour some negative feelings towards him. This was not to say that the Aschen were particularly expressive or emotional people but Hagan was a skilled observer that had helped make Tech Con rich because of his ability to read others intentions and beyond the impassive face Hagan detected a similar reaction in Mollem to the humans back on Hebridan who resented the serrakin and hated "half-breeds" such as himself. This was a pity because if Mollem's people generally shared his opinion it might make gaining a foothold in the still largely untapped consumer market that was the Aschen Confederation very tricky Hagan thought regretfully. Highly advanced, with a population in the billions and a high standard of living the Aschen represented the best opportunity for trade in the United Worlds and capitalist Hebridan was primarily looking for customers and business opportunities not political or military allies.

On the subject of alliances Hagan noted that the new Tok'ra representative Thoran had arrived with a member of the Free Jaffa who seemed to be there as both bodyguard and aide. The growing interdependence of those two factions seemed to be edging towards some kind of actual unification and if that occurred then they would likely represent an extremely pivotal power-block in the future. For all the jokes about how close their personal relationship was it was hard to deny that Egeria and Bra'tac had together managed to bridge the divide between their two peoples in a way that would be concerning the Goa'uld System Lords greatly if they weren't already too busy fretting about Baal. In the long-term Hagan knew that the future lay with humanity, the sheer preponderance of human worlds represented here demonstrably proved it, but for the immediate future the Tok'ra/Free Jaffa were a major player still on the rise and they knew it.

'If I might raise another matter before we adjourn for lunch' Freyr spoke up, seeking to end the continuing arguments about Tegalus, 'we have still to discuss granting the planet Galar observer status for this organisation in preparation for their eventual membership' he said.

'Do the Asgard stand as sponsors of the Galarans?' Lya asked.

'Earth stands as sponsor' Faxon announced, 'Galar is a world included within the Protected Planets Treaty between the Asgard and the Goa'uld System Lords so the Asgard High Council asked us to take the role to avoid any political or diplomatic repercussions' he explained.

'Who seconds the motion?' Lya asked, looking around.

'Tollana seconds' Omoc said.

Lya nodded. 'Do we have any objections?' she checked.

'What's one more human world' Thoran from the Tok'ra asked sardonically, 'the place is already full of them' he noted.

'It's not our fault that our ancestors were enslaved from Earth and deposited throughout the galaxy by yours' Jyran responded, not liking his tone. 'And before you say that the Tok'ra are not the Goa'uld our people were stolen from their homeworld thousands of years before Egeria split from the rest' she said.

'I am simply pointing out that the Asgard, Nox, Gadmeer and Tok'ra races for example have one vote each in this organisation and yet the humans have many' Thoran replied.

'Perhaps we should have voting power based upon on population instead?' Ambassador Tarthus suggested, 'no wait there are how many of us and how many of you?' she asked sarcastically.

'The Aschen Confederation would support such a procedural change' Mollem said hurriedly.

'I was joking' Thoran told him, there were billions of Aschen and not a one had a sense of humour.

'Oh' Mollem replied. They should make some sort of hand-signal when they did that he thought.

'I think that we should adjourn for lunch now' Freyr opined.

'Just as long as it's not the Asgard doing the catering' Kalan couldn't help but joke. Once again Mollem didn't get it.

* * *

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – August 2004**

'You shot me' Sheppard said accusingly, pointing a finger at McKay as soon as he arrived at Weirs office from the infirmary finding the scientist already there talking to her. 'No, let's not trivialise this, you _killed_ me' he corrected himself.

'You were going to kill _me_ when I couldn't take off the personal force-field device' McKay responded, the thought of being asphyxiated had not exactly been a pleasant one either.

'It deactivated before we had to go through with it' Sheppard pointed out, the green crystal had automatically powered down as soon as McKay's shaky subconscious mental control of the device reached the conclusion that it was imperilling him not protecting him.

'Nevertheless your solution to getting the forcefield off me was exactly the same as the solution for getting that alien creature off you' McKay persisted. 'Kill the host and the passenger just falls off' he said.

'Whilst I can understand you harbouring some ill-will towards Rodney in the circumstances from what Lieutenant Ford said you were screaming for someone to do something' Weir reminded Sheppard.

'He just snapped his fingers a few times, said "I've got a great idea", told Ford and Teyla to stand back and then he zatted me' Sheppard complained, 'twice.'

'In quick succession so it didn't hurt as much' McKay noted. 'Almost as soon as his heart stopped the insect that was feeding from him dropped off, Beckett is still trying to figure out why the thing was so zat-resistant itself it was barely stunned' he said.

'Tough little bug bastard' Sheppard said, rubbing his neck where it had latched onto him. It was purely psychological of course, his spell in the sarcophagus hadn't just bought him back to life it had naturally repaired the wound too, but he still felt like the damn thing had left something behind there.

'Couldn't you have waited until you got back to Atlantis, let Doctor Beckett find a less drastic solution?' Weir queried, looking to Rodney.

'The thing had been on him over an hour and it looked like it was draining his life-force like the Wraith do' McKay replied. 'We already know from what happened to Colonel Vaselov the damage that can do to the human system, and how long recovery can take from that even with the sarcophagus' he continued, 'moreover the insect was putting something _in_ as well as taking something out and I decided in your shoes I wouldn't want _my_ biochemistry screwed around with by an extra-terrestrial for too long.'

'Putting something in?' Sheppard asked with concern.

'Beckett thinks it might be some kind of enzyme that keeps your body from failing completely and dying straight away when put through the trauma of being fed from' McKay explained. 'That could be the stuff that prevented us sedating you' he theorised. 'Your body was running in artificially induced overdrive.'

'You ain't kidding' Sheppard replied, 'Ford gave me three shots from his medikit, normally after one you'd have a happy grin whilst they sawed your arm off and two would put out an elephant' he said. 'I just got drowsy for a while.'

'We tried cutting it off but it just took more out of the Major to heal itself with' McKay told Weir, he had been briefing Beckett and his medical team first while Sheppard recovered, or perhaps resurrected would be more accurate, so she hadn't heard the full story yet.

'That really hurts by the way' Sheppard noted, 'If getting fed on by a Wraith hurts like that I can see why they tried using that on the Colonel as a torture technique' he said.

'The bonus is that if the feeding mechanism for the insect and the Wraith are similar the enzyme would keep you conscious no matter how much it hurt' McKay observed. 'Normally you'd shut down once the pain went above a certain level.'

'And you said before that Teyla had heard stories about these creatures?' Weir asked McKay.

McKay nodded. 'She thought they were tall tales told to children to keep them close to camp at night' he said. 'Best guess now is that they're related to the Wraith, maybe an ancestral species or else they both evolved from an earlier ancestor, the lines diverging at some point in the past.'

'They don't look much like Wraith' Sheppard commented, it was basically a huge bug the size of a housecat.

'How much do you look like a lemur?' McKay asked rhetorically, 'we're quite closely related to those furry little guys when you look at the big picture' he said. 'Once we've had a look at the alien's genetic makeup we'll know a lot more' he added.

'Did they manage to bring back any prisoners in the other jumper?' Sheppard asked.

'One live wraith for interrogation, two dead for dissection' Weir told him, she wasn't happy about the means that would be employed for the former but knew they needed intelligence.

'The live one is a soldier, probably doesn't know much we but we will get to test how much stronger that caste is than the pilot we already had' McKay noted. 'One of the corpses was an officer, someone on the Retrieval Squad we bought along in Gateship Two hit him with a laser when he should have used the zat' he opined.

'They _were_ in a fire-fight Rodney' Sheppard reminded him, 'and I thought we had all agreed that they were going to be called Puddle Jumpers not Gateships?'

'I didn't vote that way' McKay grumbled.

'And you lost' Sheppard replied.

'So how much of the Wraith Hive did you find?' Weir asked.

'Loads of it, the thing must have been miles in length' Sheppard replied. 'What we thought when we were there first time around was a range of hills was actually the buried ship' he said. 'Of course now it's spread over an even larger area in small radioactive chunks so in terms of useful salvage not so much' he said regretfully.

'Our demolition charges must have caused a secondary explosion inside the ship measuring a hefty number of megatons' Rodney said.

'It wasn't a total bust at least' Sheppard said more brightly, 'we came under attack from a Wraith patrol that might have been investigating what the hell happened to their hive and we had some fun shooting them up before I made the call to head home' he said. 'It was while we were gathering weapons and anything else that looked interesting off the dead Wraith that the damn bug pounced on me' he said with a look of distaste. 'Ford found me, lousy bug half-paralysed me, and Corporal Eitam was trying to help when a second batch of Wraith turned up and I told her and Ford to deal with them first.'

'There were hundreds of them' McKay declared.

'Twenty-five or thirty tops' Sheppard disagreed, 'they seemed to have more respect for our weaponry than the first lot we ran up against there from what Ford told me when he got back' he said. 'They stunned Eitam which is why I was subjected to the tender mercies of Doctor Death here instead of a proper medic' he added, throwing McKay another look.

'It was a mercy killing and you're better now' McKay responded, 'can't you let that drop?' he requested. 'I let you shoot _me_ once didn't I?' he asked.

'When you were protected by a freaking forcefield' Sheppard replied.

'Don't make me send one of you two boys to stand in the corner' Weir chided.

'He started it' McKay defended himself.

'You shot me' Sheppard replied in disbelief.

McKay adopted an aloof air. 'Not as an act of malice' he said, looking away.

'I looked in on Corporal Eitam' Weir said, now ignoring them, 'the wraith stunner seems to have very different effects than our own zat'nik'tel based weapons' she observed.

'It's more like a form of temporary paralysis than sticking your fingers in an electrical outlet' McKay explained, 'a zat overloads your nervous system whereas the wraith equivalent partially shuts it down' he said.

'So what would happen if you hit someone with a zat and _then_ with a wraith stunner?' Sheppard wondered.

'Feel free to volunteer to try it out' McKay replied.

'No way, it might kill me and I don't want to spend any more time in the metal box for a while' Sheppard replied. 'Too many trips to the sarcophagus and you end up one sandwich short of a picnic' he stated, 'I saw a couple of Troopers that ended up that way after one too many times being KIA' he continued, recalling his old job. 'When the guys in charge of X-COM think you're too nuts to be on a UFO Retrieval Team then you've got some _serious_ issues' he opined.

Weir laughed, he made a valid argument there. 'So how did it work out with Teyla?' she asked.

'Fine' Sheppard replied, 'kept her head when we mixed it up with the Wraith and when I had the space-leech on me' he said. 'I think having Athosians attached to our teams as local guides and advisors is a good idea' he said.

'The Colonel has his reservations but is willing to agree as long as they are all screened with a Mind-Probe' Weir replied. 'With Teyla wearing our uniform we might see a few more volunteers now' she suggested.

'Where is the Colonel anyhow?' Sheppard queried, looking around. 'I was told he wasn't around.'

'After Doctor Becketts gene-therapy worked he decided to try out a jumper' Weir replied, 'now we can open the roof of the hanger he decided to take a trip around the planet, get his bearings he said.'

'Might cheer him up at least' Sheppard replied. Vaselov was a flyer, it would do him good to get back in the saddle plus they might need another experienced combat pilot who knew how to get the best performance out of flying the craft any time. 'Do we know when we might get the F-302's put together yet?' he asked.

'I've got Kavanagh and his team working on it' McKay replied, 'it's not like putting together a radio-controlled model you know, it'll take a while to get them assembled, tested and flight ready' he said.

'From what we've seen of Wraith Darts our F-302's will eat through them like a fat guy through popcorn, be nice to have them ready to go as soon as we can' Sheppard advised.

'Was that a dig at me?' McKay responded irately, 'I told you I only ate that much sweetened popcorn watching last nights movie because I felt my hypoglycaemia coming on' he defended himself.

'I hear that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is a big hit with the Athosians so far' Weir remarked, trying to head off another argument.

'It's The Return of the King playing tonight, if you want a seat get there early like I plan to' Sheppard advised.

'I've not seen that one so I actually might join you this time' Weir replied. She hadn't been to the last two movie nights although the number of children to be seen running around mock sword-fighting over the last couple of days indicated that the Terran side of the cultural exchange was going better than the Athosian attempts to popularise their pre-dawn tea ceremony.

Sending a mission back to the planet where they had destroyed the Wraith Hive, not that they had known that was what it was until after they got the information out of their prisoner, had been a no-brainer. With Elizabeth Weirs consent Colonel Vaselov had dispatched Sheppard and his new reconnaissance team in one jumper with a second jumper carrying an X-COM combat team as protection and with everyone back alive, plenty of Wraith dead, one more live prisoner to stick in Alien Containment and plenty of captured enemy weapons to toy with it wasn't a bad day all things considered. True Major Sheppard had a nasty encounter with some of the local fauna and ended up dead for a short time but that was an occupational hazard.

Teyla and her people were still trying to adjust to being on Atlantis, the former city of their ancestors, and getting used to the strange ways of the Terrans was proving even more difficult but they seemed to be safe from the Wraith now and the Athosians could not deny that the humans from another galaxy were so far proving well able to handle the Wraith.

The Ancestors had not returned themselves but more of their children had come and the Athosians had started to think of them as cousins. Distant, odd and occasionally baffling cousins perhaps but family nonetheless and they possessed an optimism and self-belief that was almost infectious as they talked of ridding the entire Pegasus Galaxy of the Wraith and making humanity, the rightful inheritors of the Ancients, the dominant race of these stars.

When she and a few others first witnessed an X-COM Trooper water-skiing past the city, being pulled along behind a Puddle-Jumper flying just above the ocean, Teyla did however find it hard to persuade her people that the Terrans were not collectively one tuttleroot short of a bowl of soup.

* * *

**Omega Site – PX0-999 (Terra Nova) – August 2004 **

'Look Colson' Sharp began again, looming over the billionaire industrialist tied to the chair in the centre of the interrogation room, 'there is no way that we are going to allow you to go public with what you know' he said firmly, 'so either you agree not to go to the press or you'll be spending the foreseeable future in a cell next to an alien with a body-odour problem' he vowed.

'Alright I agree just let me the hell go' Colson replied, trying to sound convincing.

'He's still lying' the other man stood behind Sharp holding the silvery metal sphere in his hand told the Commander.

Sharp groaned. 'And for the last time it's not trickery, we really _can_ read your surface thoughts with that gadget so there's no point trying to lie' he told the prisoner.

'More alien technology you've been keeping secret from the public?' Colson responded, glaring at the military officer who was trying to intimidate him into joining this dastardly cabal. Samantha Carter had already tried and failed to persuade him in a more civilised fashion, she had even taken him for a ride right around this alien planet in one of their admittedly incredible fighter aircraft in an attempt to play on his love of aviation to no result and shortly after they landed a couple of goons had grabbed him and hauled him in here.

'Yes, we've kept in secret and for good reason' Sharp replied.

'Because the government always knows best' Colson responded sarcastically. He had already given up trying to fight his bonds, all that had achieved was sore wrists, so an few acid remarks were his only means of signalling protest and defiance.

'No, because people are panicky idiots and I'm actually including most politicians in that generalisation' Sharp told him. 'If the people knew how many times Earth was nearly destroyed in the last few years we'd see rioting on the streets, governments would fall and it would get much harder for people like me to _stop_ Earth from getting destroyed' he stated. 'A stable political structure back home means taxes getting paid, people going to work in factories like the ones you own and the weaponry getting produced that we need to keep the evil monsters from outer space from turning you, and every other human being into a slave, a medical experiment or tomorrows lunch' he declared.

'What makes you so sure?' Colson asked.

'Lieutenant-Colonel Carter already told you what happened on Galar when their government went public' Sharp replied, 'it caused chaos, near anarchy' he said.

'That doesn't mean it would happen that way on Earth even if I believed you both' Colson replied.

Sharp swore under his breath. 'Look you stubborn, idealistic idiot' he snarled at the aviation engineer turned businessman. 'You probably think that I had you dragged in here after Carter failed to talk you around entirely for our benefit but if you _had_ gone straight back to Earth someone there would have killed you rather than risk you letting the cat out of the bag' he informed him.

'Are you threatening me?' Colson replied.

'No, I'm _warning_ you' Sharp told him, 'when I get around to threatening you there won't be any doubt in your mind that's what's going on' he said flatly.

Colson looked away. 'I don't respond to intimidation' he said. 'Anyhow I know you're bluffing' he continued confidently. 'I'm too high profile with too many politicians in my back pocket chasing campaign contributions for you to do anything to me but make idle threats.'

'You think?' Sharp asked rhetorically, turning to the Trooper holding the mind probe. 'Service pistol' he requested, holding out his hand.

Colson watched the lower-ranking soldier draw the pistol from his holster and pass it to the one named Sharp. 'So now you're going to pretend to shoot me?' he asked.

'No' Sharp replied and shot him in the leg. It was only an old-fashioned slug-thrower not a plasma pistol so it blew a hole in him not a bloody crater.

As Colson screamed and bled onto the floor Sharp turned back to the Trooper and handed back the pistol. 'Give him a shot of painkiller then have a medic run a Healing Device over him' he ordered before addressing Colson again. 'That was just to prove just how fucking ruthless we really are' he said as the billionaire fought back the pain. 'Now it's true that _I'm_ not prepared to kill you but others will be and unless you think there's nobility to dying a martyr you'll keep your mouth shut' he continued. 'We've got CIA, MI6 and other assholes working for us that would kill you without hesitation and make it look like an accident' he said as the Trooper injected Colson with a needle from his medikit.

'What gives you the right?' Colson hissed as the painkiller rapidly kicked in.

Sharp turned to leave. 'The United Nations gave us a mandate to protect the human race' he said, 'at the moment we're doing it very well and right now you risk fucking that up' he said, heading for the door.

'I believe in humanity, I believe people have a right to know' Colson yelled after him. 'Nothing you can say to me or do to me will change that' he said.

Sharp stopped walking and turned back. 'There is nothing more praiseworthy and yet simultaneously fucking annoying than a courageous idealist' he told Colson. 'I'm going to give you half an hour to reconsider and if you still refuse to do as you're told I'm going to have you put on ice until everything eventually goes public.'

'This is false imprisonment, assault, kidnapping' Colson yelled at him as Sharp headed for the door again.

'It would be _murder_ if I let you go back through the gate to Earth' Sharp replied, opening the door and leaving.

Outside in the corridor Sam Carter was waiting. 'I can't believe you shot him' she said in a mixture of amazement and horror.

'He needed to know I wasn't bullshitting him' Sharp replied, 'hopefully after he's been patched up and given some time to think about it he'll realise that someone in X-COM or one of the national intelligence agencies really will kill him if he tries to go public' he said. 'I'm going to grab a sandwich and then come back and try again' he said, setting off towards the canteen which was some distance away within the sprawling underground facility. If it hadn't been for them losing quite so many F-302's in action they would have continued to keep all facets of production in-house but the number lost over Mars during the Cydonia mission, and later in space fighting Anubis and his fleet had meant outsourcing the production of certain basic components to the private sector, Colson Aviation in particular. The billionaire had been suspicious of the technology and had the resources to properly investigate which was how they ended up in this situation, he had actually obtained enough proof to be considered a menace and was threatening to go public with what he knew. That was where Carter had come in, she had approached him, arranged for him to be taken via stargate to the Omega Site and had even taken him up in one of the base F-302X fighters trying to talk him out of it but no dice.

'You make it sound like you did him a favour' Carter replied, following Sharp along the corridor. She had been listening to the whole thing outside the room, the sound of the gunshot being quite a shock.

'I did, he's been living in an ivory tower for too many years where his money insulates him from everything' Sharp said. 'Now he knows for certain that the guys with the siege engines are outside ready to knock it down at any moment he's going to reappraise his situation.'

'You weren't serious about throwing him in alien containment were you Sir?' Carter asked.

'No but I was being very literal when I said I'd have him put on ice' Sharp replied, 'we've got stasis chambers we got from the Sectoids, I'll have him stuck in one of them until X-COM and the stargate program are declassified.'

'I'm not sure on your legal standing here Sir' Carter advised him.

'Really?' Sharp replied, 'I'm pretty sure I could do hard time for all sorts of things I've done in the last five years including this' he said. 'Assuming any legal authority either knew about it or could sort out the tangled web of jurisdiction' he added before checking his watch. 'Janet is going to kill me if I'm not back home when I said I'd be' he said with a sigh.

Despite her continuing misgivings over what was happening to Alec Colson Sam had to smile. 'When I saw her yesterday she was pissed at you Sir' she said.

'It's not like I'm arranging for Baal to launch an attack every time I've promised to be back on Earth' Sharp defended himself.

'I think Janet's main complaint is that you always look better rested and less stressed than she does' Carter told him.

'I've always tried to nap between missions when things get hectic' Sharp replied. 'I suggested she do that between feedings but she has to check up on Jacob every five minutes even when I'm there to do it instead' he continued. 'Cassie keeps offering to watch him to give Janet a rest but I guess she's got a bad case of First Baby Syndrome' he said. 'First and only I was told at the delivery' he added with a chuckle.

'I think lack of sleep eventually cures that' Carter noted.

'I hope so' Sharp replied, 'it's the looking out for symptoms of childhood ailments that I try to humour' he said. 'She knows so much medically about what can happen to babies it's making her even more paranoid.'

'Jacob is gorgeous you know' Carter told him.

'Yeah, if she hadn't hit me last time I'd have joked about me not possibly being the father' Sharp replied, grinning.

'Janet said you were hoping for a boy' Carter observed.

Sharp nodded. 'A little girl would have been great too but I basically figured that since I sort of get Cassie along with Janet I was already getting a daughter so a son might be nice' he said.

'That's very sweet' Carter responded, smiling at him.

'Just don't let anyone know, it would ruin my hard-earned reputation as an unrelenting, horrible son-of-a-bitch' Sharp replied, checking his watch again as they reached the canteen. 'We'll give it another twenty-five minutes before heading back to the interrogation room he said. 'Colson should be fixed up and maybe more pliant when we get back' he said. 'Want to play good cop, bad cop?' he asked.

'Brigadier-General O'Neill would consider that an unforgivable cliché Sir' Carter replied as they entered the Canteen. 'Oh I was meaning to ask' she said, remembering something. 'How did you get on with the VR Training tool?' she queried.

'The simulation was fantastic' Sharp replied, 'Doctor Lee and the others who worked on it should be proud of that' he continued, 'the problem was it was too easy' he opined.

'Too easy?' Carter asked in surprise, 'it's supposed to be an adaptive program that increases in difficulty according to player ability' she said.

'I just kept beating it again and again' Sharp replied, then frowned. 'Lee did say he thought that I might have been the problem' he admitted.

'How?' Carter queried.

'Apparently the chair looks deeper into the subconscious mind than Lee thought it did' Sharp explained. 'Supposedly the problem is that deep down I just don't think I can ever lose' he told her with a shrug.

* * *

_**Note from the Author:**_

___In SG1 episode 8:05 Icon Earth encountered the planet Tegalus where the nations of the Rand Protectorate and Caledonian Federation were in a state of Cold War and nuclear standoff. The arrival of the Tau'ri through the stargate caused a fundamentalist religious revival in Rand with demagogue Soren trying to take control of the government through an uprising. In canon he suceeded in taking control of Rand and launched a nuclear attack on the Caledonians, the subsequent exchange killing millions. However in the XSGCOM continuity Earth flagged the situation up to the Optricans knowing what opinion they would have on the matter of religious nuts worshipping the goa'uld (unwittingly or not). After crushing a similar group in Bedrosia with Langaran help the Optricans were only too happy to aid the government of Rand in their own little problem. Optrican high-tech firepower plus Langaran soldiers with Psionic Amplifiers were more than a match for Soren and his people although their methods were not to the liking of some. __Lucia Tarthus is a Langaran diplomat from the Andari Federation who is now the Langaran representative to the United Worlds. Amongst others Earth is represented by Joseph Faxon, Tollana by Omoc, Orban by Kalan, the Nox by Lya, the Asgard by Freyr, the Tok'ra by Thoran, Hebridan by Miles Hagan and the Aschen Confederation by Mollem._

_____Sheppard picked up an Iratus Bug when they re-visited the world the ground Hive had been on in SGA episode 1:04 Thirty-Eight Minutes. The Wraith are related to the Pegasus native insect, both inject an enzyme to keep you alive while they feed off your lifeforce. In canon they used defibrillator paddles to stop Sheppards heart and make the Iratus bug let go (anything else they tried failed) here Rodney just killed him with a zat discharge from his L2-A2. Also in canon they were fleeing the Wraith soldiers, here the better armed XSGCOM personnel were more than a match for them. __Thanks to the use of X-COM Mind Probes the Atlantis Expedition team are much more confident about the Athosians (who are also themselves more confident about the Terrans because they seem to be very effecive at fighting the Wraith) so I'm having relations generally being much better without much of the problems starting to arise that we saw in SGA episode 1:05 Suspicion). __Tuttleroot soup is an Athosian dish, only mentioned for the sake of the humour at the end there._

_______Alec Colson was the billionaire owner of Colson Industries featured in SG1 episode 8:08 Covenant. When he was going to go public with what he had learned of the stargate program and aliens The Trust tried to kill him here it is X-COM trying to keep him quiet instead. __In SG1 episode 8:06 Avatar Teal'c gets stuck in a VR Training simulation that utilises the chair technology discovered in SG1 episode 2:04 The Game Keeper. The problem he had is that the chair had a sophisticated AI that governed the difficulty of the simulation and buried deep in his subconcious was a nagging belief that the Goa'uld would win eventually... Sharp has the opposite problem in using the thing!_


	6. Chapter 6

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – August 2004**

Travoc leaned back in his chair reached back and rubbed his stiff neck before turning towards Elizabeth Weir stood behind him to his left. In front of him a small grey box with no apparent surface features was projecting a holographic image of page after page of Ancient Script and apparently translating it into the Tollan language, Travoc had been sitting there reading for some time and was increasingly weary. 'Worst file system design and implementation ever' he opined disparagingly. 'At least it would be for us' he added with a sigh.

'I'm sorry I don't understand' Weir replied, looking to McKay and Zelenka also stood nearby for an explanation. McKay had asked her to join them in his laboratory where the Tollan had established himself first thing in the morning and had been working for the last ten hours straight occasionally giving the Earthers an update on his progress.

Zelenka shrugged. 'The Ancients were smarter than us' he said.

'Way smarter' Travoc agreed, before McKay could issue a denial. 'It's like when I was on Gaia trying to use a Nox computer' he said, shaking his head and sighing.

'The Ancients were like the Nox' McKay explained to Weir who was still none the wiser, 'they had perfect recall and were simply far better than us at working out things in their heads' he continued. 'As a consequence the Atlantis database has about the least user-friendly way of storing data we've ever encountered' he told her. 'In some ways it's amazingly intuitive to use normally but other times when you're trying to search through it it's fiendishly over-complicated' he said.

Weir pursed her lips. 'Are you trying to tell me that it's not dumbed-down enough for us to use?' she asked.

'Not how I would have phrased it but essentially yes' McKay confirmed. 'I encountered a similar problem on a smaller scale on Langara when dealing with my former research assistant Kianna and a few other locals' he told Weir. 'They were just too good at remembering things to bother to take notes all the time, or always write out detailed reports like we would, so an awful lot of the documentation on their Deep Underground Excavation Vehicle only existed in the heads of their engineers' he continued. 'Same thing here basically, it's not that helpful or user-friendly because it was designed for people who wouldn't _need_ the help' he said glumly.

'From what we can tell the Ancients were inordinately smarter than any Langaran and as a consequence the database is a nightmare to try and use' Travoc stated, joining in. 'Tollan systems, or even yours, are much more helpful and logically organised for the simple reason we can't simply just _remembe_r where everything is filed so we put them in a simple logical structure and have ways to quickly and easily search through them' he said.

'Trying to trawl up a specific piece of information can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack' McKay told Weir. 'Although with a powerful enough magnet that's pretty simple as it happens' he added as a point of trivia.

'At the moment we're often just digging into it and discovering random pieces of useful, or not so useful information' Zelenka told weir. 'Although Mr Travoc is having more success it seems' he noted.

'It's Tesserarius Travoc or just Travoc' the Tollan told him, not for the first time 'and the only reason I'm doing better is that I gave up trying to use the lantean database completely after a futile week spent trying to find an easier way to access it' he said.

'I'm sorry but I'm confused' Weir told him, 'how are you having more success with the Ancient database if you're not using it?' she asked in confusion.

'He's copying it over to a Tollan system a section at a time, then reordering the files and adding a proper search system' McKay explained.

'Technically I've got the computer here doing that for me' Travoc corrected him. 'That's what it's doing right now' he explained. 'It's going to take quite some time to complete the process though I'm afraid' he added apologetically.

'Despite the fact that little box he's got there supposedly measures its processing power in exaFLOPS and can hold a hundred times as much data as every other hard-drive we bought with us to Atlantis combined' McKay said enviously.

'Even for my people it's state-of-the-art as you'd say' Travoc told Weir with a smile. 'The problem is that the Lantean database is so vast copying it over, reordering it and then putting it back together is an epic task' he said. 'I prioritised the copying and searching of files that seemed to relate to weapon systems and power sources and I've got a couple of interesting possibilities we might want to look into' he said.

'You've found out how to make ZPM's?' Weir asked hopefully.

'No, but I have found out they called them Potentia and that they weren't manufactured here on Atlantis unfortunately' Travoc replied. 'The alternate power-source I've discovered is an unmanned deep-ocean mining rig that can drill down and exploit geothermal energy' he said. 'If we can locate it, and it's still operational, we could move it closer to the city and add its output to the naquadah generators we're already running.'

'Locate it?' Weir queried, 'Move it?'

'Oh it crawls along the bottom looking for mineral deposits' McKay explained, 'or at least it did, the Lanteans shut the project down.'

'Why?' Weir asked, didn't it work?'

'It definitely worked' Travoc told her, 'the reason why the project was shut down isn't in the set of files I've already recovered but looking at the dates on the original design documents it might have been abandoned because of the war with the Wraith' he said.

'Perhaps the engineers and scientists were diverted to the war effort' Zelenka suggested.

'How deep is it?' Weir asked.

'We won't know for certain until we find it but it should be reachable in puddle-jumpers because that's how the Ancients did it' McKay replied. 'They're designed to work as submersibles too we've discovered' he continued. 'As a matter of fact there is a second underwater jumper bay for just that purpose we think' he added.

'We've also learned that the jumper's cloaking field can be converted into a shield and this was intended not only to offer some protection against weapons fire or collisions it could allow the jumpers to dive deeper' Zelenka told Weir. 'The rechargeable power-cell would be quickly depleted but we've already managed to successfully integrate a pair of naquadah generators into our prototype upgraded jumper which will greatly increase endurance' he said proudly, that was his project and it was going very well so far.

'Pity the weapons you were supposed to be adding too haven't appeared too' McKay muttered.

Zelenka rounded on McKay. 'You know full well that is because we decided to halt the development of a compact laser cannon and instead switch to a less powerful directed-energy armament with a higher rate-of-fire because of the fragility and manoeuvrability of Wraith fighters' he said in annoyance. 'I promise that within the week we will have added the Kull Plasma Repeaters Earth sent us to the jumper weapon pods' he vowed to Weir. The repeaters were so compact that you could easily fit one into the fold-out drone launchers without interfering with the existing mechanism. They could only fire in short bursts unfortunately but that should still be more than enough to tear a Dart to pieces.

'You mentioned finding information about weaponry as well as power-sources' Weir asked Travoc, hoping to end another argument between Zelenka and McKay before it got going.

Travoc nodded. 'During the war with the Wraith the Lanteans deployed a large number of weapon satellites in this system' he told her. 'They all seem to have been destroyed during the fighting except for one that was disabled' he continued. 'The Lanteans believed it was still intact enough to repair but they never did because with the satellites knocked out the Wraith were able to reach Lantea and they put the city under continual bombardment.'

'Did these satellites fire drones?' Weir asked.

'No they were beam weapons, perhaps not too dissimilar from our just on a much larger scale' McKay told her.

'How large?' Weir queried.

'The satellites were each roughly the size of a goa'uld Ha'tak' McKay replied. 'Of course given that a Wraith Hive measures eleven kilometres from end-to-end you can see why they though they needed very big guns' he said.

'So we think we can get this satellite running again?' Weir asked.

'Hopefully, but if not it's still well-worth checking out' Travoc observed, 'I doubt the Ancients had directed-energy-weapons that were inferior to ours' he said. 'The satellite is perhaps fifteen hours away by puddle-jumper but if you want to wait until Kavanagh and his team have finished assembling your Avenger Transport it's only seconds away using hyperdrive' he noted.

'Considering how long it took him to finish assembling the F-302's don't expect to get a team there in the Avenger any time soon' McKay said.

'Please feel free to do what you can to speed up the process Rodney?' Weir replied. 'This does _not_ include having him dangled from the top of the central tower of Atlantis by his ankles before you suggest it again' she added sternly.

'I only meant it as a joke, it's not my fault those X-COM Troopers thought I was being serious' McKay defended himself. 'I stopped them before they could go through with it anyway' he noted.

'By which time Doctor Kavanagh had already been dragged out of his laboratory' Weir reminded him.

'It was funny to watch' Zelenka remarked with a chuckle, looking suitably chastened when Weir threw him a look of displeasure.

'He got the third F-302 completed faster too' McKay added, 'well he did' he told Weir who had re-directed her glare in his direction.

Travoc pushed back his chair and stood up. 'I need to stretch my legs and get something to eat' he said. 'I'll try and find out more about the mining platform before tomorrow assuming you want to investigate that as soon as possible?' he checked with Weir.

'Additional power from the platform would help us a lot' Weir agreed. 'Keep looking for information about ZPM's though' she added.

'Yes' McKay agreed. 'And anything you can find out about drones too' he said.

'And their shield designs' Zelenka added, 'they are the best we have ever seen.'

The Tollan sighed again. 'If you prioritise everything then you prioritise nothing' he observed. 'Colonel Vaselov wanted me to determine the viability of placing Heavy Ion Cannon defences in Atlantis' he said.

'Would your government supply them?' Weir asked.

'After I send them what little I've already gleaned from the Atlantis database I'd say yes' Travoc replied. One of the Curia's strategic priorities was to keep a technological lead on the Aschen and this data was the means to that end. Unfortunately with their far larger population the Aschen were expected to close the scientific gap and edge ahead of Tollana in less than a century based on current trends, this was something that needed to be avoided at all costs, Ancient knowledge was the means to that end.

'Well that might prove a surprise to any Wraith that come here' Zelenka said brightly. 'They will be expecting a city and will find a heavily armed fortress.'

'They've still got numbers on their side' Weir cautioned. 'The Ancients won battle after battle but they still lost the war' she pointed out.

'From what I can tell from the history files I've read so far the Ancients fought a largely defensive campaign' Travoc said, 'they ceded the initiative to the Wraith and never really got it back.'

'I guess we'd better not make the same mistake then' Weir responded.

'Yes because without a ZPM we're in no position to sink the city and hope someone else can succeed in another ten thousand years' McKay agreed.

'Before I go eat I have come across a couple of references to super-weapons the Lanteans were trying to develop to fight the Wraith with' Travoc announced, 'most seem to have been abject failures but there is a reference to a program to develop miniature drones which looks intriguing and a few vague comments about a project they were developing in secret back in our galaxy' he said. 'It may have been a type of biological warfare because it mentions genetic engineering.'

'Wraith tech is biological so it would be an avenue to consider' McKay responded. 'Also Wraith hyperdrives are slow so the Milky Way is out of their reach' he said. 'We're not aware of the Ancients remaining in numbers in our galaxy after they left for Pegasus though.'

'Maybe, maybe not' Travoc told him. 'In the history files it mentions that before they called themselves Lanteans, or others called them Ancients, they called themselves Alterans originally' he said.

'Alterans?' Zelenka repeated. 'My God!' he exclaimed. 'Altair' he said, 'the world where the androids lived.'

McKay snapped his fingers. 'If I remember right that android SG-1 met said he was over eleven thousand years old which puts them well within the right timescale' he said. 'It would also explain why they were so advanced so many years ago.'

'So Altair was an Ancient Colony still running in the Milky Way while the majority of their people lived in Pegasus?' Weir asked.

'Maybe it was a research station' McKay suggested. 'The majority of people there might not have even been Ancients, they could have been humans taken from Earth or even somewhere in Pegasus' he said. 'That would explain why the remaining android SG-1 found doesn't know how so many of the systems work' he continued, 'he was just a copy of one of the human residents.'

'We should relay this information back home, have someone look into it' Weir said. 'I wonder what this biological weapon they were developing back in the Milky Way actually was?' she asked rhetorically, blissfully unaware that a large number of Ascended Ancients were currently watching her from the higher planes and laughing their non-corporeal arses off.

* * *

**Great Temple of Moloc – Goranak – August 2004**

Even with the great temple which dominated the area ablaze, and the bulk of the remaining loyalist forces broken and retreating west towards the mountains in the distance, the elite of Moloc's Imperial Guard were still fighting. At least a thousand of them refused to abandon their positions, steadfastly doing their duty to their god against the shol'va so-called "Free Jaffa" army and their equally vile Tok'ra allies, trying to their last breath to prevent the sacrilege of the traitorous enemy taking the largest and most important temple to Moloc.

As Bra'tac watched from the vantage point of a hill overlooking the battle his forces were continuing to advance, mostly not needing his advice although he carried a Tau'ri communication device with which he could give new orders if needed. Lead elements on the verge of entering the lush gardens surrounding the temple grounds. The deathgliders which would normally have helped protect the temple had been dealt with by sabotage before the attack began, sympathisers to the Free-Jaffa cause had used explosives to destroy the aircraft on the ground, and Moloc himself had been tricked by false intelligence planted by Tok'ra infiltrators into sending his fleet to the far side of his domain to fight a supposed offensive being launched by Kali.

Without air-cover or orbital support Moloc's garrison on Goranak was no match for the Free-Jaffa, particularly when thousands of the goa'uld's own Jaffa had already been deserting him in droves. They had put up a fight however, a force more than three times the number of the invader had met Bra'tac's army in the meadows south of the Temple, but the loyalists had been shot to pieces only the feared Imperial Guard remaining steadfast as they maintained a surprisingly skilful fighting retreat towards the complex of building and gardens that surrounded the spiritual capital of Moloc's domain.

'They fight in the old way' Bra'tac observed sadly to the Hac'tyl leader Ishta now stood beside him as the best part of a hundred of Moloc's Imperial Guard launched a counter-attack from their position, charging at the Free Jaffa across open ground, yelling out battle cries as they went. As a High-Priestess she knew the temple and the area around it as well as anyone and had been a useful advisor to Bra'tac as he planned this assault.

'Courageous but foolish' Ishta agreed as a pair of hand cranked Staff-Gatlings mounted on horse-drawn gun-carriages opened up, cutting down the charge as the Free-Jaffa gunners swept their fire across the loyalists. 'They have learned little from earlier battles' she said as a battery of Heavy Staff-Cannon on similar carriages joined in, temporarily re-directing their fire away from the temple.

The Tau'ri had supplied the gun-carriages and the metal shield that protected the crew from return fire and once again the weapons had proved their worth. Teams of fast horses could bring the Heavy Staff-Cannon into action quickly and in conjunction with the smaller number of Staff-Gatlings, the lighter cannons from deathgliders some of the Free-Jaffa infantry carried on their shoulders and the ubiquitous Staff-Rifles they provided an edge in firepower which all the bravery and fanaticism in the galaxy couldn't overcome.

'What a waste of brave warriors in so poor a cause' Bra'tac commented as he turned away from the slaughter and towards the woman. 'It bothers you not to see the temple where you once served burning to ruins?' he asked.

'So many of my sisters died there I feel only relief as the flame which consumed them razes it instead' Ishta replied. 'I trust my warriors have proven themselves?' she asked.

'Yes, although many in the Free Jaffa ranks are likely to never fully embrace the idea of female warriors fighting alongside male' Bra'tac replied.

'I have already clashed more than once with Gerak and the other hidebound traditionalists' Ishta replied. 'They cling to customs which the False Gods fostered among our people to hold us back' she said. 'It annoys me greatly but things will change in time' she added confidently. Fortunately the Jaffa were long-lived.

Bra'tac turned back towards the battle. 'M'zel is about to turn the enemies left flank' he said, pointing towards where a large force of Free Jaffa were re-deploying. 'Not yet sixty-five he is very wise for his years and is well-respected as both a warrior and a leader' he added. 'Strangely however he is not yet wed' he added with a half-smile.

'Did he ask you to talk to me about that?' Ishta replied indignantly.

'It may have come up in conversation' Bra'tac replied. 'You could do far worse than to marry M'zel' he suggested. 'For one thing his youth means that he is less set in his ways than most others of his status within the Free Jaffa' he continued, 'perhaps still young enough for you to persuade him to abandon those old traditions of the wife's submission to her husband that you so object to.'

'I don't need a husband' Ishta declared.

'That does not mean you would not benefit from one' Bra'tac replied. 'You could not find any braver or more loyal to the cause of his peoples freedom' he stated. 'See as I said, M'zel will soon be in a position to lead his warriors against the weakened left of their line and will then shatter their entire defence' he said.

'Why does he not attack now?' Ishta asked.

'Because he is waiting for fire-support from the new battery of staff-cannon that is being moved to assist his advance' Bra'tac explained, pointing to where warriors were man-handling the cannon into position, it was too close to the fighting to risk the horses. 'I told you he is wise as well as brave, he does not throw away the lives of those he commands' he said. 'As the ancient saying goes, no First Prime ever won a war by dying for his god, you make your foe die for his.'

'False Gods' Ishta replied.

'It remains a truism nonetheless' Bra'tac replied with a shrug as the new battery of staff-cannon now in place opened up and M'zel started to lead his troops against the increasingly shaky Imperial Guard of Moloc, the Free Jaffa using the infantry tactics taught to them by the Tau'ri.

Ishta looked around. 'We have lost many of our own today already and will lose more before the day is ours' she noted regretfully.

'They die free' Bra'tac replied. 'Also through their sacrifice we will deal a great blow to the myth that Moloc is a god after tricking him away, defeating his strongest garrison and then razing his most holy site' he said.

'The temple has always been a symbol of his power' Ishta agreed.

'And now as ruins it will be a symbol of ours' Bra'tac responded. 'See the Imperial Guard breaks' he said with a smile as M'zel and his warriors succeeded in outflanking the defenders.

'It may be necessary to kill them all, I doubt they will surrender' Ishta told him.

'I confess that though they are my brothers like all Jaffa that thought does not bother me as it would for most loyalists with whom we have done battle' Bra'tac replied honestly. Moloc's elite troops had been the ones that enforced the ruling that all female children born should be burned alive at their god's command and as a consequence the rebel Jaffa had rarely bothered to even _try_ and get them to lay down their arms in past engagements, it felt far more righteous just to shoot them.

Ishta decided that it might be a good time to broach a request. 'Those I lead amongst the Hak'tyl have suggested that if some amongst the Free-Jaffa are resistant to fighting alongside women perhaps they might be happier if we were _behind_ them instead' she said.

'Meaning?' Bra'tac asked.

'The Hak'tyl have long kept horses' Ishta noted, 'we could crew some of your horse-drawn staff-cannon in place of the men currently doing so' she suggested. 'That way we are still fighting our enemies but can argue to Gerak and the others that they remain between us and the foe as tradition insists.'

'That may be within the letter of the law but hardly the spirit as the Tau'ri would say' Bra'tac replied. 'However I would be willing to offer my support to the idea' he told her. 'I would suggest you train your best warriors in the techniques and tactics we use with the cannon so that if challenged to demonstrate you can do it you actually can' he added.

'Give us a month to practice and any warrior that sees us move and crew the guns will wish for the battery of staff-cannon supporting him in battle to be Hak'tyl' Ishta declared. 'Once we have proved our skill and courage all but the most wilfully blind to our abilities will come to accept that we can contribute more than children to the cause.'

'I will have a team of horses and a staff-cannon provided to you, as well as an advisor' Bra'tac agreed. 'Rya'c the son of Teal'c has recently made some study of the use of fire-support in battle and is not as set in his ways as many of the older more experienced warriors' he said.

'I thought the son of Teal'c of Chulak was training to become a deathglider pilot?' Ishta responded quizzically.

'He was doing so aboard the Ha'tak we and the Tok'ra captured from Baal but thanks to an increase in Jaffa joining our ranks we have far more trained pilots right now than deathgliders to put them in' Bra'tac explained. 'He is likely with a staff-cannon crew somewhere out there amidst the fighting this very moment' he said.

The Imperial Guard buckled then broke as the pressure upon them grew too great. With M'zel leading the Free-Jaffa chased them down, a retreat becoming a rout as Moloc's most loyal warriors began to flee in increasing numbers.

A final stand was made in the temple itself which ended badly for the defenders because Bra'tac had no interest in taking the place in any way intact and therefore whilst the remnants of the Imperial Guard prepared for one last courageous stand the Free Jaffa bought up their Staff-Cannon and simply pounded the building from long-range until it completely collapsed.

As expected the news that Goranak had fallen to the Free-Jaffa spread like wildfire through Moloc's domain, triggering uprisings on almost all of his worlds. By the time his fleet arrived overhead the rebels were long-gone through the stargate leaving only the smouldering ruins behind as testimony to their prowess in battle and as a demonstration of the obvious fallibility of the planet's ruler.

His armies over-stretched and garrisons already sorely depleted from earlier battles with the Free-Jaffa Moloc was forced to abandon several worlds to the rebels entirely as he sought to hold onto as much territory as he could. Fortunately for Moloc the Imperial Guard themselves stayed loyal crushing the insurrections on several planets and preventing a wholesale collapse of his realm but any pretence of him being all-powerful was gone forever.

It had already been a bloody, costly campaign for the Free Jaffa, and it hadn't finished yet, but Bra'tac and the other rebel leaders were more than pleased that their outwardly merely symbolic victory had paid such dividends. As they considered the lesson learned voices started to whisper of a another symbol, one that if it fell into their hands would not merely break the aura of invincibility and myth of godhood of one goa'uld but all of them at once.

It was a dream, nothing more, but what if they could take Dakara?

* * *

**M7G-677 – Pegasus Galaxy – August 2004**

'I swear, the next one of you little bastards that fires an arrow at me is going over my knee' Sergeant Nash declared as he confronted another dozen or so of the locals, mostly now young teens at most after the "Elders" had already been rounded up.

The children looked terrified as well they might being faced by three sets of Powered-Armour. McKay had already deactivated the Electromagnetic Field Generator which had kept the Wraith away from here for centuries so at least the Terrans didn't have to attempt this task without the benefit of advanced technology.

'We're safe here from the Wraith' one of the older kids said, they had already established that there were people inside the great metal suits not monsters so although her voice was trembling she wasn't too scared to speak up.

'No you're not' Nash replied, 'not any more' he continued, 'we're going to take you somewhere where you will be and you won't have to kill yourself before you're twenty-five either' he told them.

'Our rituals have protected us from being culled for centuries' another of the children declared.

'No, the gadget that stopped us using these suits and our guns until we turned it off kept the wraith away' Nash responded. 'The only reason why your ancestors began killing themselves is because the electromagnetic field it generated wasn't large enough to cover enough area to allow population growth' he said. 'It's nearly out of power anyway so even if we hadn't come along it would have still failed soon and then you'd have all been eaten' he said.

'The Wraith only eat those over twenty-four' the girl who had spoken first insisted.

'That's not true' Nash replied. 'If you come with us we can protect you from the Wraith.'

'Not even the Ancestors could do that' the girl retorted.

'That says more about the Ancestors than it does about the Wraith' Nash told her. After looking through a few of their combat reports on the Atlantis database it was starting to become apparent that they made the goa'uld look militarily competent. 'Okay, here's the plain truth' he said. 'We can't let you stay here so you either come along peacefully or we'll do this the way that will hurt' he said.

'Sarge are we sure zats are safe to use on kids?' one of the other troopers asked.

'Yes' Nash replied, that wasn't to say he was all that keen on stunning all these children though.

'We won't go' a boy of about twelve practically screamed at the intruders.

'This will not go down in the annals as one of the more glorious actions undertaken by X-COM' Nash said with a groan before he shot the kid with the zat'nik'tel fitted to his rifle.

The other children started screaming, some running away those being unceremoniously shot in the back as the rest continued to wail. 'You killed them' the girl who had been talking the most yelled at him.

'No I didn't, they're just asleep' Nash replied. 'Now the rest of you stop making that noise' he bellowed which then had them crying. 'Bloody hell, you can stop that malarkey too' he told them. 'How many villages of these little sods are there again?' he asked the other troopers.

'Twelve' came the reply.

'We're going to be doing this for days' Nash said with a sigh before addressing the children again 'Alright all of you drop any weapons you're carrying, pick up your friends and come with us' he ordered. 'You're all going on a great adventure and we're going to feed you cake and fizzy drinks and all that other bollocks' he said, wondering how the others were getting on.

Back on Atlantis Elizabeth Weir was still far from sure that they had made the right decision. In normal circumstances the idea of forcibly relocating hundreds of children from their home would have been an anathema to her but with some difficulty Colonel Vaselov had talked her around. He had argued a purely utilitarian case of the greater good for the greater number pointing out that they could save more lives with the ZPM which had been powering the Electromagnetic Field Generator than it was protecting where it was.

Although the ZPM they had found was nearly depleted, it held enough remaining energy to power the Atlantis shield at full strength for a few hours at most, it might make all the difference when the wraith came and Weir had reluctantly accepted that argument. From everything they had learned so far if humanity in the Pegasus galaxy was ever going to be free from the threat of being culled it was going to be Atlantis in Terran hands that did it and Vaselov had hammered home the argument that squeamishness about moving the few hundred inhabitants of M7G-677 was no good cause for risking the lives of millions.

Initially when they arrived on M7G-677 via jumper and the field had disabled the craft and all their equipment McKay had hoped it would be possible to back-engineer the device responsible and deploy similar units elsewhere but unfortunately it had proven to be reliant on the planets own unusual magnetic field properties to work. Nonetheless the fact that whoever had built the thing had utilised a ZPM as the power-source had been a very welcome revelation since even though it was nearing maximum entropy the zero point module finally gave Atlantis the means to protect itself, if only for a limited time.

Dealing with all the children and young adults was going to be a problem although re-settling them on Lantea's sole large continent was the obvious choice. Small numbers of Wraith darts or even a couple of cruisers would stand little chance against the F-302X interceptors which now guarded Lantea and if the wraith came in force those on the mainland could be quickly returned to Atlantis for protection. In order to make movement between the city and the continent easy two Aschen Transporter Platforms had already been imported from Earth with one in Atlantis and the other placed on the mainland within a farming village the Athosians had recently established having realised that they could make more of a contribution that way and some preferring a more rural lifestyle in any case.

Watching another batch of children reluctantly arriving through the stargate from her office overlooking the scene Weir was once again struck by pangs of guilt. It just seemed so heartless in a way, not to mention the nagging thoughts that it was arrogant to force a cultural change on another people even if their society was deeply wrong on so many levels, and she resolved to make amends. It was well within her means to ensure that the youngsters she was forcing from their home would have as good a life as could be provided for them here, well fed, well housed, properly educated and naturally provided with the best medical care. In time maybe they wouldn't hate the people who had done this to them she hoped, certainly it was hard to argue that they were really better off on M7G-677 at least.

'So how are they accepting their new imperial overlords so far?' John Sheppard asked, entering Weir's office.

'Please don't make jokes like that Major, I don't think it's funny' Weir replied.

'Liberal guilt got to you?' Sheppard suggested with a smile.

'That's one way of putting it' Weir responded. 'Please tell me it went smoothly with that boy Keras and the other so-called Elders?' she asked.

'We showed them our wraith prisoners and that room we've got packed out with all the weapons we've taken from others and I think that might have persuaded a few that we really can protect them from being culled here' Sheppard confirmed. 'There are still a few doubters, and they're all still pissed at what we've done to them, but with your permission Colonel Vaselov is going to give a little demonstration of what a Grim Reaper can do once they're all on the mainland which might sway a few more of the nay-sayers.'

'Demonstration?' Weir queried.

'A few supersonic runs at low altitude, show off our birds and some strafing runs to show off our firepower' Sheppard explained. 'If you've never seen what our cannon will do to trees you'd be impressed' he said. 'For that matter it might be a good way to clear some of the forest for agriculture' he added.

'I've requested a number of pre-fabricated buildings to be added to the next supply shipment from Earth along with new clothes for them all' Weir told Sheppard. 'I also expect a very nasty note from the UNHCR to arrive.'

'I think you can count on getting support from X-COM at least for the call you made' Sheppard told her.

Weir frowned. 'I wish that made me feel better not worse' she said. 'What do the Athosians think about this all?' she asked. 'I know that you've developed some rapport with Teyla.'

'They don't like the idea that we're basically manhandling minors but generally they agree that we couldn't let the kids continue killing themselves at least' Sheppard replied. 'They're hoping to try and help them adjust to their new home.'

'Tell Teyla that anything we can do to assist with that we will' Weir told him.

'I'll let her know' Sheppard replied. 'Might be for the best if we try and keep a low profile ourselves on the mainland for a while though' he said.

'You're probably right, I doubt they'll see us as particularly nice or friendly' Weir agreed.

'If it helps McKay thinks the Field protecting them would have only lasted another generation at best' Sheppard told her. 'If we hadn't ever come here they'd have all been some wraith's lunch eventually' he said.

'I just hope they come to accept that' Weir replied. 'So did the Avenger pass its flight tests with flying colours?' she asked.

Sheppard nodded. 'We'll be ready to go take a look at the Ancient Satellite Weapon tomorrow with your permission' he replied. 'McKay is already putting together the team he wants to take.'

'Do you really believe we'll still be able to get it operational after ten thousand years?' Weir asked then chuckled. 'What am I saying, that makes it practically brand new compared with most Ancient technology we've encountered' she said.

'Just getting a look at the biggest cannon in the known universe is worth the trip in my book' Sheppard remarked. 'Should be a step up from our AG-3X platforms at least' he continued. 'On that subject now we've got the Avenger to get them into orbit we should really request a few.'

'I already have on Colonel Vaselov's recommendation but we're still much lower priority than Earth as regards orbital defences' Weir replied. 'We might be able to obtain a handful of the new model Zapsats sooner though I was told' she said, using the common nickname for the large laser cannon which had proven their worth during the attack by Anubis on Earth.

'The elerium crystal used for focusing the beam only increases firepower by fifty percent, they're still not much good against a Hive' Sheppard responded. 'They might be enough to deal with cruisers I suppose' he added more optimistically, 'but we do need liquid-naquadria powered beams if we want a chance at stopping enemy ships that make Atlantis look kinda unimpressive in scale' he pointed out seriously. Even an AG-3X which could carve up a shielded Ha'tak with relative ease wasn't really the ideal weapon for use against the largest wraith vessels, the damn things were gigantic.

'I'm sure if it was just a matter of money we could get what we needed faster but the bottleneck is production of liquid-naquadria I'm told' Weir told him. 'According to what I've read it makes juggling vials of nitroglycerine look perfectly safe.'

'Slightly bigger explosion if it goes up' Sheppard joked. It wouldn't actually take very much of the "liquid" allotrope of the heavier isotope of naquadah to blow the entire city they were in to tiny debris. If it wasn't so good for powering sub-atomic particle beams nobody would even dream of manufacturing the stuff, it made regular naquadria look stable by comparison. 'I should really get back to McKay, try to persuade him not to pack too much equipment and people into the back of the Avenger.'

Weir smiled then remembered something. 'Oh I meant to tell him before, maybe you could pass it on' she said. 'The robot submersible he wanted should be coming with the next shipment from Earth.'

'Great, that'll give a chance to take a look at that Mining Rig down there' Sheppard enthused. 'I really don't want to risk taking a jumper down that deep only to find the thing's a wreck' he said. 'Zelenka is confident the jumper shield would stop us getting crushed but it's still a spaceship not a submarine' he observed.

'Well at least that'll be _one_ place we can go without too much angst resulting from our sticking our noses into someone else's business' Weir replied, 'Not much chance of the fish protesting about us drilling in their neighbourhood.'

Sheppard grinned. 'McKay told me that according to the Lantean database there's a lobster down there the size of a buick' he said. 'Better requisition more butter' he joked.

Weir laughed. 'I'll see to it' she said. 'It'll make a change to prioritise resources with butter ahead of guns for once' she joked.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

___The Lantean Mobile Drilling Platform was featured in SGA episode 3.18 Submersion. Thanks to access to Tollan technology they are now discovering information from the Lantean Database earlier than in the show timeline. The drilling platform project was stopped for an unknown reason by the Ancients... maybe they found something down there? The Ancient Defence Satellite was discovered in SGA episode 1.12 The Defiant One. It was fifteen hours away from Lantea by puddle-jumper but that would only be a very short trip for an Avenger. __There isn't a lot of spare room inside the weapon pod of a Puddle Jumper but Kull Plasma Repeaters are not only nice and compact they're powerful enough to destroy darts. Add a couple of naquadah generators to bolster the ships energy reserves and it's a much nastier vessel for combat. Zelenka works out how to turn the cloaking field into a shield in SGA episode 2.14 Grace under Pressure. __Harlan on Altair had been on his own for eleven thousand years when SG-1 met him in episode 1.19 Tin Man and had enjoyed the company of other android copies of the original inhabitants for some time before that. Altair as a society therefore likely well predated the goa'uld coming to Earth and so I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that it was a remaining Ancient Outpost especially given that the real name for the Ancients is the Alterans anyway. Harlan said that only Hubbald the builder of the facility he lived in knew how everything worked, my view is that Hubbald was Lantean and Altair was a Lantean colony re-established in the Milky Way long before the Wraith War from where the Ancients meddled with ourselves (there's no way we ended up looking so much like them by accident)._

_____The Temple of Moloc on Goranak is mentioned in SG-1 episode 8.09 Sacrifices. The Imperial Guard of Moloc seem to be his feared elite who enforce his laws. __Now using large numbers of field-guns (staff-cannon on decent gun-carriages) as well as Staff-Gatlings (classically hand-cranked) the Free-Jaffa are a much more formidable force than in canon (and in canon they would have taken the temple if not for the fact Moloc ordered his fleet to Goronak anyway). With his wife Drey'auc still alive Teal'c is not in a relationship with Ishta which is why M'zel has been making (clumsy) moves on her. __Dakara is the name of the planet where the goa'uld first put the Jaffa into servitude, implanting them with the first prim'ta. It therefore holds considerable symbolic power as a location, at this time it belongs to Baal and is heavily guarded._

_______M7G-677 was a world featured in SGA episode 1.06 Childhood's End. The people there had been protected from being culled by the wraith by a ZPM powered Electromagnetic Field Generator that stopped all advanced technology working but because it could only generate a field covering a small area centuries ago they had adopted a fairly extreme method of population control, everyone commited suicide before their 25th birthday. __It's mentioned in SGA episode 3.12 Echoes that one of the creatures inhabiting Lantea's ocean is a "lobster-like crustacean down there the size of a Buick". If you know your aliens from X-COM: Terror from the Deep you know what that means..._

_Reviews are always appreciated :-)_


	7. Chapter 7

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**Omega Site - PX0-999 (Terra Nova) - September 2004**

Professor Able Standard would have much rather been spending his time on his own sorely under-funded pet project but if he didn't show some willing to do the work they actually wanted him to prioritise then X-COM might kick him out completely and then where would he be? Why they had still insisted on continuing to develop the next generation of Powered Armour rather than leap straight to a fully-fledged AI robotic soldier Professor Standard couldn't begin to fathom but the limited minds without vision ran the show and he was forced to perform what they wanted him to hence he was now half way across the galaxy doing last-minute diagnostic checks on the shiny new toy that the military drones wanted to see. Although he had done most of the work on the project he wasn't really all that comfortable at speaking in public so Doctor Markov would be doing the talking fortunately, she was stood nearby going through her notes in preparation for any tricky questions and Standard hoped he wouldn't have to field any of them in she couldn't.

Brigadier-General Jack O'Neill was yawning already as he watched the geeks go about their business next to the thing with the sheet thrown over it, though the yawn was mainly due to the extremely tedious briefing he had received on current goa'uld political manoeuvrings back at the SGC before coming here rather than an expectation the demonstration was going to be dull. In his experience new X-COM hardware being put through its paces was anything but boring, you had to admit they produced awesome equipment.

Later on they would be heading for the surface to see a demonstration of the new shield-penetrating missiles, which had been named the AIM-200 Mongoose in honour of their intended task of chowing down on the damn snake-heads, but for this first part of the days itinerary they were still deep underground in one of the caverns that had been carved out to hold the bunker complex. The seating was fairly rudimentary, half the guests had found themselves perched on old ammunition crates, but given his rank O'Neill had of course been accorded the privilege of a chair, albeit it a moulded plastic one taken from the canteen.

Once everyone had taken their seats, there were about three dozen visitors from the SGC, Area-51 and Yamantau, the team running the demonstration began their introductory spiel. Commander Sharp was sat to O'Neill's left with Colonel Rodrigues on his other side while Carter sat to O'Neill's right holding a notebook on which she had already scribbled a few questions she wanted to ask later. O'Neill hoped the Q&A session wouldn't last too long as he didn't want to have to rush his lunch, there was nothing less civilised than bolting your food.

'Good Morning' Svetlana Markov began, smiling at the group. 'I believe you have all already been introduced to each other and I am sure you do not want to hear about the background to the project so I will get right on with it' she said.

'I always liked her' O'Neill observed quietly, Carter looking up from her notepad and directing the briefest of unreadable looks his way.

Markov glanced at her own notes again before proceeding. 'As you all know it has been over two years since we introduced the Mark I Powered Armour suit into service' she said. 'Originally Doctor Zelenka, the project lead at that time, intended to upgrade to the Mark II well before now but changing priorities caused some delays and then the development of new technologies we decided were worth integrating into the suit caused others but I am happy to say that after a few teething troubles the Mark II Powered Armour suit is now ready for field testing and serial production' she declared, giving the nod to Professor Standard who pulled the sheet from the prototype.

'Bitchin' Sharp said enthusiastically, I might have been around Cassie too much he thought to himself afterwards.

Bulkier than the Mark I the new version of the Powered Armour suit looked considerably more menacing, the image helped by the fact it had been painted up in red and black. 'Firstly I would draw your attention to the bulges under the forearms' Markov told them. 'The left arm carries a built in heavy laser and a zat'nik'tel discharger whereas the right holds... something special' she said.

'Must be good' O'Neill decided, the Russian scientist was employing some showmanship.

Svetlana Markov looked pleased with herself, as well she might because this was her part of the project. 'As you know the Plasma Repeater weapon used by the Kull Warriors has proven itself to be far more effective than previous goa'uld weaponry' she noted. 'In fact the only drawback was its tendency to overheat resulting in only short bursts being possible rather than continuous fire' she continued, 'we've done better' she declared, moving towards the suit.

'Improved cooling?' Carter wondered to herself.

'Instead of one Plasma Repeater the Mark II carries three of them firing sequentially using the same gatling-gun design as we used to increase the rate-of-fire for the earlier Staff-Weapons' Markov explained. 'Added to other refinements we can achieve double the original fire-rate and still fire bursts of five-hundred bolts at a time without overheating' she announced.

'Sweet' O'Neill said appreciatively, at least it was better than "bitchin" he decided.

Markov was pleased by the expressions on everyone's faces and basked in the glory before continuing. 'As well as the built-in weaponry we have also designed the Mark II in such a way that additional modular weaponry can be carried as well' she told the audience. 'It takes less than three minutes to add either a bolt-on rotary shotgun or a 40mm automatic grenade launcher to either arm' she told them. 'Both of these are fed from large ammunition hoppers which would be mounted on the back of the suit.'

'What if we wanted both?' Colonel Rodigues asked to laughter.

'Unfortunately you can only carry one ammunition pack but the free arm can be fitted with a modified version of our Heavy Plasma Rifle if additional firepower is required' Markov replied. 'We were originally intending to demonstrate the suit and its weaponry in action at this juncture but decided it would be too hard on the complex' she said. 'You will get to see it in action later on the surface however.'

'I'll take ten right now' O'Neill declared, 'show me where to sign' he said to more laughter.

'But surely General you wish to at least hear the rest?' Markov responded, amused.

'I doubt I can afford more than ten with my budget but go on anyway' O'Neill replied.

The Russian rapped her knuckles on the suit. 'Trinium/Cydonium alloy laminated with tungsten and ceramics' she said. 'Fifty-percent more resistance to enemy fire than the Mark I' she told them. 'But that is only the start of the defensive capabilities of this suit' she said. 'You have a built-in personal cloaking device, full ECM system, passive and active sensors plus, thanks to our back-engineering of the robot reconnaissance probes developed by Anubis, an energy shield.'

'It's got a freaking _shield_ ?' one of the other visitors, a Major from Area 51, asked incredulously.

Markov nodded. 'Although a far less capable unit that the ones fitted to our fighters or Hover Tanks the shield has been rated to stand against at least three hits from a Staff-Cannon or Heavy Plasma Rifle in quick succession' she announced. 'We would still suggest getting out of the line of fire as soon as you get hit the first time however' she advised with a chuckle.

'If it can take three hits from a Staff-Cannon it would take a hellacious number of Plasma-Repeater or Staff-Weapon bolts Sir' Carter told O'Neill.

'Yeah but I'm beginning to thing the price-tag might put ten of them out of my reach' O'Neill responded with a frown.

'I can see one obvious drawback Doctor Markov' Colonel Rodrigues observed. 'That thing probably weighs a ton and a half, that could hurt mobility as well as being a pain in the ass when we're on certain terrain' he said. 'For that matter I've seen plenty of rickety floors and bridges out there in the galaxy, the goa'uld aren't great with transport infrastructure' he added.

'Fortunately, although the Mark II is indeed considerably heavier than its predecessor, this new model does have a mitigating advantage' Markov replied. 'The Mark I was not fitted with an elerium powerplant giving it the ability to fly' she said flatly.

'Jesus, I thought Zelenka was joking about that' O'Neill said in surprise when he recalled being told back in 2002 that the next suit would have that ability.

Fortunately most of the group were now staring at Markov incredulously so Sharp didn't have to quiet them down. 'Okay, are we talking like Iron Man here?' he asked semi-seriously.

Markov didn't understand the reference and turned to Professor Standard in case he might. 'No Commander' Standard spoke up, 'the flight abilities of the Mark II are limited to the ability to hover and move through the air at about the same pace as a Sectoid Cyberdisc because they share the same elerium propulsion system' he told him, trying not to look away as everyone looked at him. 'In fact you only have fifteen to twenty minutes worth of elerium fuel so in terms of mobility you would still be better off walking in most cases, only using the flight ability sparingly' he said.

'Could you use the flight module in a series of short bursts' Rodrigues asked, 'say to jump forwards, I mean bound along' he explained.

Markov looked puzzled. 'What do you mean exactly?' she asked.

'You know, like a kangaroo but higher and further' Rodrigues told her.

'We would have to check if the servo mechanism and shock-absorbers in the knees could take it but perhaps so' Markov replied. 'It would require some modifications though I would think.'

'It _would_ be more fuel efficient' Professor Standard observed thoughtfully, elerium would only be used up as the suit jumped and then the unit could be shut down letting inertia and gravity do the rest.

Sharp turned in his seat to look at the Colonel. 'I think you've taken the notion of "Rodrigues's Roughnecks" way too seriously' he told his second-in-command.

'When the Jaffa see fifty of those suckers bouncing towards them firing grenades and plasma as they go they're going to re-think their loyalty to the goa'uld right away mark my words Sir' Rodrigues replied, grinning. 'Pity the Mark II's aren't nuclear capable as well' he joked.

'Actually the grenade-launcher has a range of over a kilometre so naquadah/potassium projectiles with a nuclear yield equivalent to a few tons of TNT are practical munitions' Markov told him seriously. 'Nirrti is already designing them' she added.

'We are going to kick so much goa'uld ass' O'Neill said happily, the "supersoldiers" Baal was so pleased about were going to get stomped into the ground.

'We are going to destroy _so much_ of the galaxy in the next few years' Carter muttered to herself sadly.

* * *

**Planet Hoff – Pegasus Galaxy – September 2004**

Major Sheppard was thinking it but wasn't anywhere near blunt or undiplomatic enough to actually say it, the same was true of Captain Gaston, Sergeant Nash however wasn't so inclined towards behaving like a polite guest. 'These people are fucking retarded' he opined none too quietly as the Hoffan Chancellor Druhin finished explaining his people's great work.

'Thank you Sergeant' Sheppard told Nash sardonically as the Hoffans in the room adopted a mix of hurt and angry expressions. 'I'll have to apologise for the Sergeant' Sheppard told Druhin.

Druhin looked none too pleased but for his part he was rather more politically adept. 'I'm sure you could find plenty in our own military with a similar lack of social niceties' he replied, not entirely sincerely.

Trying to improve the atmosphere Teyla put on a winning smile, it was her idea to come to Hoff after she had been asked if she knew of any worlds which were technologically advanced so she was hoping that she hadn't made a mistake. Although perhaps a century or more behind the Terrans the Hoffan people were at least industrialised which put them ahead of most societies in the galaxy but they were also more than a little blind to the likely consequences of their great project it seemed.

Not quite as blunt as Nash McKay nevertheless was also thinking along the same lines. 'So the plan you've been working on for centuries is to perfect a drug that will ensure that the next time the Wraith come here to cull you they won't leave _any_survivors and will blast this entire planet down to the bedrock after they commit genocide on you?' he asked.

The Hoffan Chancellor looked confused. 'I'm sorry?' he responded.

'Let me handle this' Sheppard told the others. 'Look what we're all thinking is that if you succeed in developing a vaccine that prevents the wraith feeding on you then all you'll be doing is guaranteeing that they will kill you all' he told Druhin in as polite a manner as he could. 'The Wraith can't risk you spreading the knowledge to other worlds and they can't risk you continuing to advance to the point where you might be a threat so they'll destroy you from orbit.'

'We are no threat to the wraith' Druhin responded.

'They need to feed on humans to live so you're a threat to their entire existence as a species' McKay told him flatly. 'If they thought for one second you were doing this then there wouldn't be any more Hoffans' he said.

Teyla nodded. 'The wraith have destroyed worlds for far less' she agreed. 'I have seen the ruins of civilisations they destroyed merely because they were becoming too advanced and might be able to fight back' she said. 'Your plan... is suicide' she told them awkwardly.

'You mock the life's work of countless Hoffans' Perna one of the scientists on the project spoke up indignantly. 'A hundred and fifty years ago ten thousand of our soldiers laid down their lives so that Doctor Ferrel could have but a few more minutes to try and complete his work we now continue' she declared.

'And if he had succeeded before the wraith came that time this planet would be a barren wasteland' Sheppard told her. 'Surely _somebody_ here considered this?' he asked rhetorically.

Druhin frowned. 'There were and are always naysayers but...'

'We have wraith prisoners, we know how they think' Sheppard told the Hoffans. 'You're making a big mistake here' he stated. 'We're going to beat the wraith and all you need to do is survive until we have, but if you provoke them into destroying you before we can... well all the effort your people have made to preserve their culture and knowledge is going to be wasted.'

'Major from what I have heard their entire society has been working towards the development of this drug for generations' Teyla told him. 'We can hardly expect them to abandon it on our say-so' she pointed out. 'Perhaps Doctor Weir might be a better choice to try and persuade them of their folly?' she suggested.

'Can I make a suggestion Sir' Captain Gaston requested, addressing Sheppard. 'The Hoffans have already shown us their geothermal power-plant' he noted, 'they need power sources to maintain all the underground bunkers they've constructed , perhaps as a gesture of good faith we could give them a few naquadah reactors?'

'Naquadah reactors?' Druhin queried.

'They're about this big and generate enough electricity to run a small city' Sheppard explained, holding his hands apart to demonstrate the size of the unit. 'We can provide you with designs for better weaponry too, ones that you'll be able to make yourself' he said. 'If you really want to protect your people from the wraith we can help you do that but we won't help you perfect something that will guarantee your own destruction.'

'We're not interested in the scraps from your table' Druhin responded. 'We only told you of our great work because it seemed from what Teyla Emmagan said of your medical knowledge you might be of assistance.'

'Not going to assist you bringing the entire force of the wraith down upon you' Sheppard told him. 'Like I said, we know how they think.'

'I suppose you've looked into their souls?' Perna asked sarcastically.

'Not sure if they've got one of those but we do have devices that mean we're able to read their minds' Sheppard replied. 'Fact is thanks to plenty of in-depth interrogation and a little psionic investigation we're well on the way to having an extremely in-depth understanding of their psychology and abilities' he said, Doctor Heightmeyer was already compiling notes for a thesis on the subject he knew. 'Did you know that the wraith can actually put back the life-energy they take out of you?' he asked rhetorically. 'Surprised us too but they can' he said.

'And you expect us to believe in such witchcraft?' Druhin responded.

'No faith required, we can show you' Sheppard told him.

In some ways the Hoffans were extremely impressive as a culture and society. They had refused to bow down to the wraith, preserving their accumulated knowledge in bunkers across the planet so that they could quickly rebuild after each culling, and they had a praiseworthy devotion to the cause of not giving up but they had really picked a bad idea to fixate upon as a goal. Just before the last culling, one-hundred and fifty years ago, it had been discovered that one of their people was immune to being fed upon due to a random mutation that had resulted in a freak protein within the man's system. Ever since they had strived to create a drug that would render all of their population so immune, not really thinking through the inevitable consequence when the farmer discovered that the herd wasn't edible and might do the same thing to all the other livestock if it wasn't dealt with. The Hoffan drug wasn't a protection, it was an invitation to be slaughtered, you might not want to eat a cow suffering from Foot-and-Mouth disease but you couldn't let it live to infect others either.

'Have you not heard the stories of what happened to the Satedans less than ten years past?' Teyla asked the Hoffans. 'According to the tales I have heard they sought to protect themselves by making it too costly for the wraith to attack them by building up large, well-trained and well-equipped armies' she said. 'Instead they bought down the wrath of the foe upon themselves because the wraith cannot afford to permit defiance' she continued. 'Simply the idea that others might seek to emulate the Satedans if it worked was enough to provoke the wraith to act' she explained.

'We're not making any headway here Major' Captain Gaston remarked to Sheppard. 'As Teyla said perhaps Doctor Weir might be able to talk these people out of metaphorically slitting their own wrists' he said.

'Yeah' Sheppard agreed. 'Look we're genuinely hoping to have a good relationship with you and your people' he told the Hoffan Chancellor, 'we've got a lot to offer each other and we could be great allies against the wraith' he continued, 'but for now we'd better go home' he said. 'Please just give what we've said some thought okay?' he requested.

'We're a democracy Major, the will of the people is paramount here and I doubt the words of a few strangers will sway many but we will of course give your arguments due weight' Druhin replied in such a way that Sheppard hoped Weir would be able to make some headway with these people because they had a cultural blind-spot that was going to get them all killed if they didn't realise it soon.

As they headed back to Atlantis via the Hoffan stargate Sheppard wished that every mission could go as well as the one they had undertaken only two days before. Using their Avenger as transportation to get there they had not only found the Lantean Weapon Satellite in a repairable state they had picked up a signal from a nearby planet and discovered the wreckage of a wraith supply ship left over from the war which they were now eagerly taking apart. Astonishingly they had even found a live wraith survivor who had survived the last ten millennia by feeding on the supplies (human beings kept in stasis as rations) and the rest of the crew. After an almost amusing initial attempt by the wraith to feed on the scouting team, he had_really_ underestimated his "prey" who nearly killed him with a laser hit through the chest before he fled and was hunted down by motion scanners, the new prisoner was now sitting in a cell in Atlantis wondering what the hell had happened to the natural order of things while he was away.

The weapon satellite itself had proven as expected to be a huge particle-beam cannon which was designed to burn through the thick armour and immense hulls of wraith capital ships. It was surprisingly energy efficient according to the specifications they had found in the Lantean database, leading McKay to wonder how exactly it could produce so much raw firepower for so little power input, but figuring out the how was a lesser priority than just getting the thing operational again and just as importantly moving it to somewhere more useful. Originally dozens of the satellites had defended the approaches towards Lantea but the remaining one was only useful if the wraith happened to follow a course that went near it which was not ideal.

Weir had wondered how on Earth, or perhaps Lantea, they expected to move a multi-million ton satellite into geosynchronous orbit above the city and had been slightly annoyed when the response from her scientific team was amusement. Eventually Zelenka explained that all they needed to do was get it moving in the right direction and then the Avenger could open a hyperspace window ahead of it. Compared to moving the vast bulk of the naquadah asteroid now in the Oort cloud of the Sol System relocating the Lantean satellite was not exactly an insurmountable problem, they just needed time to get all the math right before trying it. A larger problem was going to be fixing the satellites shield which would need considerable work according to Zelenka, in fact he had even suggested it might be easier to have a copy of a Ha'tak shield shipped from Earth in pieces and fit that instead.

As she listened to Sheppards report about the Hoffan's and their extremely inadvisable plan to bring certain doom down upon themselves Weir wondered how she had ended up in a position where the fate of a galaxy and its millions of inhabitants seemed to rest on her shoulders. He was right that they badly needed to be talked out of it because as yet she was in no position to protect the Hoffans from their own idiocy.

Colonel Vaselov, still often to be seen carrying his stick though he was now at least two or three decades younger in appearance than he had been after his encounter with a Wraith Queen, was sat beside Weir as Sheppard gave his report. As he listened himself the germ on an idea began to form, an idea that he wondered might be a little too ruthless and opportunistic for Weir but he thought he should suggest it anyway. 'Since we know that the wraith will attack Hoff as soon as they learn of the drug it does offer us a very useful opportunity to spring an ambush' he said. 'We could be destroying hiveships right now if we just knew where the things were.'

'Use the Hoffans as bait you mean?' Weir replied disparagingly.

'They're putting themselves on the hook Ma'am' Sheppard reminded her, 'we'd just be clubbing the fish over the head when it bites' he said.

'If it's all the same to you I'd rather persuade them to stay off the hook' Weir told the military men.

'Good luck with that' Sheppard replied, 'I mean it, good luck' he said. 'They're nice people... they've just latched onto an insane idea.'

After they had left Elizabeth Weir contemplated her next move, it might be wise to give the Hoffans a few days, or perhaps a week or two to consider what Sheppard and his team had told them, and after that she would resume contact with them herself. The nagging thought bothering however was that Vaselov's plan to use the Hoffan's as the cheese in the mousetrap had actually sounded like a very good idea and she didn't used to be anywhere near this calculating.

Weir got up and headed for the balcony from which she could look down at the city. Down on one of the piers she knew that Travoc was determining the best placement for the first of the Tollan Heavy Ion Cannon that would be shipped here in pieces starting in a few weeks time and she hoped it wouldn't spoil the idyllic view. A work crew was already starting to fit the first of the panels to the central tower that would make up the radar array for the cities new Aegis missile defences but at least those didn't really draw too much attention to themselves. 'We found a gleaming city of dreams set in a perfect ocean and we're turning it into a fortification' she said to herself regretfully, 'damn the wraith for making us do it' she added. 'Damn me for not being able to see an alternative' she added quietly to herself.

* * *

**Underground Facility – P3X-989 (Altair) – September 2004**

Brigadier-General Jack O'Neill stepped out through the stargate leading SG-1, he didn't get out as often as he used to but this wasn't the off-world mission he would have picked for himself, for one thing he hated getting summoned and if it had been anyone whose opinion he trusted less there wouldn't have been a chance he would be here right now. 'Okay RobO'Neill what's so all-fired important that you dialled the SGC and told me to get my ass here PDQ?' he asked his double stood at the bottom of the ramp.

'Better I just show you' his android copy replied. 'Carter please bring out our guest' he called out.

'Son-of-a-_bitch_ ' the flesh and blood O'Neill exclaimed as the android copy of Carter emerged with the replicator known as fifth holding him at the point of a Heavy Plasma Rifle. SG-1 had already raised their own weapons and were pointing them at the humanform replicator, Andianov looking like she was a hairs-breadth from pulling the trigger.

'I want to claim asylum' Fifth spoke up nervously, 'I came here because I hoped your robotic doubles would be more accepting... but they weren't.'

'Yeah, no shit' the android Jack O'Neill responded. 'Good thing you kept us up-to-date with what's going on out there or we wouldn't have known what to do with this little bastard' he said.

'What the hell does he mean he wants to claim asylum?' the other O'Neill asked incredulously.

'Apparently there's yet another Sam Carter around these days and this one is a real bitch' the robot version of the woman herself spoke up. 'Oh and congratulations on making Lieutenant-Colonel and getting Jack's old job' she told the original.

'There's _another one_ of us?' Carter responded in dismay, any pretense she had to being a unique individual was continuing to vanish.

'From what our friend here tells me he made a replicator copy of your Carter because he wanted something to snuggle up with but unfortunately he didn't quite get it right' the android O'Neill told his human visitors wryly. 'One successful coup later and he's sending us a radio signal from a planet on the edge of the galaxy asking for asylum.'

'You're kidding?' Daniel asked.

'No he's quite serious' the other Daniel replied, entering the room with the other Teal'c with him.  
'Hello' Reese said brightly, joining them and putting her arm around the android Daniel's waist cuddling up to him. 'Please don't hurt Fifth' she requested, 'he's not bad he's just silly' she said before giggling. 'He called me his creator which is true sort-of but I don't feel like a god' she said.

SG-1 still had their weapons trained of Fifth. 'So let me get this straight, assuming I'm understanding the situation correctly' Brigadier-General O'Neill said slowly. 'Our replicator friend there made a duplicate of Carter and she booted him out on his ass and made herself the queen of the lego robots?' he checked.

'Yup' his double confirmed. 'I guess Carters everywhere are always on the lookout for promotion' he suggested, earning a glare from both of them.

'Well isn't that good news?' the human Daniel asked. 'I mean I can't imagine Sam being a threat.'

'Unfortunately from what Number Five tells us he didn't quite get the design right' the gears and wires Carter responded.

'Emotions' the human Carter said with a obvious groan, 'he doesn't understand them very well' she realised.

'Daniel who's like me says that I'm more emotionally mature than silly Fifth' Reese declared, hugging him tighter.

'Not a ringing endorsement sweetheart' the android O'Neill told her receiving a scowl from Reese in response. 'Harlan took a look into our guests psyche using some of our gear and figured out what went wrong but it's not something that can be fixed' he said. 'RepliCarter is out there and we thought you'd better be told.'

'Aw for crying out loud' the original O'Neill responded, he loved the name "RepliCarter" though. 'If he copied everything our Carter knew and put it into his artificial girlfriend she'll know almost everything about us' he said in dismay. 'Procedures, equipment everything' he said.

'This is extremely grave O'Neill' Teal'c opined.

Fifth looked as much embarrassed as anything else. 'Samantha, I mean my Samantha considered me weak' he said, 'she believes herself more fit to command our brethren.'

'Well she's still got her smarts at least' the human O'Neill observed.

'According to Numero Cinco RepliCarter thinks the Milky Way is chock-full of all kinds of wonderful technology and resources and she's about to come calling' the android O'Neill told them.

'But we've got the Anti-Replicator guns now' Daniel pointed out.

'And if she could capture one she might be able to figure out a counter-measure' the robotic Carter responded. 'The replicators would be willing to sacrifice billions of their own kind in order to win right?' she asked rhetorically. 'For that matter the weapons are based on Ancient knowledge that was downloaded into your Jack's head' she continued. 'This galaxy is full of artefacts the Ancients left behind, maybe the solution is just buried somewhere waiting to be dug up.'

'Could she interface with an Ancient Repository if she found one?' the human Daniel wondered.

'Maybe not but if I was her I'd stick some poor schmuck into it then stick my hand in his head to get around that problem' the Carter who had arrived with him from Earth replied. 'If I was her' she said when everyone looked at her suspiciously.

'Careful, I think they're starting to realise our hidden depths of evil' her robot copy joked.

'I made a serious mistake creating her' Fifth said despondently.

'A blow-up rubber doll would have been a less risky alternative when creating a sex-toy' Andianov said. 'Well what do you _think_ he created her for?' she added when both Carters appeared to blush. 'Companionship?' she asked sardonically.

Fifth tried not to look guilty. 'I wanted a friend' he defended himself. 'Someone to love that would love me' he said.

'That's just what the universe needed, a whiny emo replicator' Brigadier-General O'Neill said, rolling his eyes.

'Just kill me now, get it over and done with' Fifth responded. 'I haven't got anything to live for any more anyway' he continued. 'Coming here was my last resort.'

'Altair, final destination of emotionally immature artificial humans everywhere' the android O'Neill observed. 'At least Reese is fun to be around most of the time, this guy is just depressing' he said.

Fifth rounded on the mechanical O'Neill. 'I've been betrayed by everyone I loved and trusted' he said angrily.

'My hydraulic pump leaks for you, really it does' came the sarcastic reply which caused the other O'Neill to laugh. 'I woke up one day and found someone had turned me into R2D2 but I just got on with my damn life' the robot added.

'Don't be mean' Reese chided. 'He's sad and he needs a hug' she said.

'He needs disintegration or a kick up the ass' android O'Neill replied. 'Either way he's your problem' he told the original version of himself. 'We don't want him' he said.

'Fine' Brigadier-General O'Neill replied. 'Who wants to shoot him?' he asked SG-1.

'We can't just shoot him' Daniel replied immediately.

'Yes we damn well can' O'Neill responded curtly. 'Just because something mopes around and feels sorry for itself is no good reason not to shoot it if it's a freaking replicator' he said forcefully.

'Go ahead, I haven't got anything to look forward to anyway' Fifth said dejectedly.

'Listen to the man, it's not like there's such a thing as replicator prozac we can put him on' O'Neill said, 'Sergeant, blow his head off' he told Andianov.

'Sir we might still be able to learn something from him' Carter interjected quickly. 'Fifth is a valuable intelligence asset.'

'He's a pain the ass if you ask me but if you want to take him with you feel free' the android O'Neill said. 'I suggest you radio ahead and have a couple of those anti-replicator guns and some Heavy Plasma Rifle ready on the other side just in case' he advised.

'I don't think it's safe to bring him to Earth though' the human Carter said.

'Okay before this ends up where I think it's going, like I said last time this is not a home for orphaned robots' the gears and wires O'Neill told the flesh and blood version sternly. 'We agreed to look after Reese because she was annoying at worst, this guy wanted to conquer the universe.'

'The desire to replicate is part of me' Fifth said.

'Maybe you could find a way to remove that part of his program, maybe even remove his ability to replicate completely' human Carter suggested, despite everything that had transpired since she still felt pangs of guilt at leaving him behind on Hala. 'We know they still use the original base-code Reese built into the first replicators and that the human-form type like Fifth were modelled on the copy of her the Asgard made to use to bait them in.'

'This thing is dangerous Carter' O'Neill told her.

'You know we could put Fifth somewhere safe while we figure out what to do with him' the robot Carter said.

'What are you thinking?' the human Carter asked.

'We put him in low-orbit using a teleporter, it's not like the lack of air will kill him and it's not like he can do anything up there other than float either' the SG-1A Samantha Carter suggested. 'If we crack his program and decide to savage him for a software update we can, if not he'll just burn up eventually when his orbit decays.'

'So one day he's planning to conquer the universe and the next he gets turned in Sputnik' human O'Neill observed. 'How the mighty have fallen' he said.

'That would be about two hundred miles if we let him come back down the hard way' his robot double responded, laughing. 'Just remember to go "beep" every few seconds while you're up there' he told Fifth. 'For that matter you could give us a weather-report if we fit you with one of our radios.'

'Chances are he would go inert very quickly Sir' the mechanical Carter told her boss.

'Okay then just go beep as long as you can' android O'Neill told Fifth.

'I don't want to be dumped into space' Fifth protested.

'Right now it's either that or get shot and dumped in the recycling bin' the robot Jack O'Neill told him seriously. 'Just look on it as an opportunity to reflect on your choices in life' he added before turning to SG-1. 'We'll give you a copy of all the data Harlan got out of him on RepliCarter' he said. 'I suggest you start making plans because we all know how dangerous a threat she represents.'

'I'm still trying to adjust to the idea that there's three of me now' Lieutenant-Colonel Carter said, shaking her head.

The O'Neill's didn't simultaneously have the same thought about what they'd like to do with three Samantha Carter's in an ideal universe but only because the mechanical Jack O'Neill had a brain that got there quicker.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

_Professor Able Standard is a character from X-COM: Enforcer (not a very good game unlike the others). He was a robotics expert fired from X-COM who developed his own project in secret. Here he is still on the payroll (somewhat reluctantly)._ _The Mark I Powered Armour first appeared in the story in June 2002, it's taken a while for them to perfect the various upgrades needed for the Mark II now entering service. Amongst other technologies the new suit combines the personal cloakdeveloped by Nirrti, the shield from the Reconnaissance Probe developed by Anubis, a gatling version of the Plasma Repeater carried by the Kull, a zat'nik'tel discharger, an X-COM Heavy Laser (fed straight off the suits naquadah reactor) and the elerium powerplant used by the Cyberdisc. Yes these suits are expensive!_

_The Hoffans first appeared in SGA episode 1.07 Poisoning the Well. They had a plan to make themselves immune to being fed upon but didn't really seem to have put much thought into what the wraith would do as a consequence. Frankly their plan was insane and this was proven later because as soon as the wraith found out they obliterated the entire civilisation on Hoff. In the show I always felt that the SGA people didn't really express the lunacy of the Hoffan plan to them in strident enough terms, even when they found out the vaccine would kill a large proportion of those that took it the Hoffan's still went ahead with their scheme (after a referendum) also demonstrating their single-minded pursuit of racial suicide. __The Lantean Defence Satellite was found in SGA episode 1.12 The Defiant One during which they also encountered a sole wraith survivor and the wreckage of a Supply Ship on another planet in the system. The lone wraith would not prove near as dangerous facing Terrans carrying L2-A3's and equipped with Motion Scanners as he did in the show. __In SG1 episode 5.17 Failsafe the team use a Tel'tak to open a hyperspace window large enough to carry a asteroid measuring 137km in length. They could only maintain the window for a short time because of its size but the Weapon Satellite is a hell of a lot smaller and if necessary you could move it in short jumps back towards Lantea. It would be much better positioned to defend the city there._

_So RepliCarter finally shows up but not quite in the way she did in canon in SG1 episode 8.11 Gemini and things are very different for Fifth. The Sam Carter in this universe (and therefore her replicator double) isn't quite the same person as she was in the show thanks to years of exposure to X-COM personnel and methodology. She overthrew Fifth and isn't about to try and fool the humans into giving her access to the design for the Replicator Disrupter because it's doubtful she'd ever get away with it. Fifth himself sought sanctuary on Altair hoping that the copies of SG-1 there, plus Harlan and Reese (the mother of the replicator race), would prove more welcoming and less likely to shoot him on sight. __We see what happens to a humanform replicator (Asuran in that case) dumped into space in SGA episode 3.05 Progeny. They don't "die" but they do become inert._


	8. Chapter 8

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

_

* * *

  
_

**Farming Village – Genii Planet – September 2004**

Teyla was relieved Doctor Weir had taken note of her insistence that Captain Gaston and his Combat Team not accompany them on this mission because the Genii were a simple peaceful people and she doubted they would have reacted well to the likes of Sergeant Nash. Cowen the Genii leader seemed justifiably wary of the people she had guided here but at least Major Sheppard and Lieutenant Ford still retained some understanding of human interactions beyond arrogance, condescension, bluntness and threats of violence so she might actually be able to facilitate a fair trade.

'You say you wish to trade medicines and other goods for our crops?' Cowen asked Teyla and the leader of the men with her. They were inside the village meeting place, a wooden house which matched their pre-industrial agrarian society which Rodney had sardonically referred to as the "Space Amish".

'Yes, we have recently acquired several hundred more mouths to feed and although we are establishing farms in order to meet their needs in the longer term for now we are hoping that we might purchase any excess from your harvest to support them' Teyla explained. Whilst they were able to have additional food shipped from Earth they could only receive supplies once a week and potentially every sack or grain, or side of beef sent through was one less piece of machinery or crate of weapons that couldn't be delivered. Feeding the children relocated to the Lantean mainland with local sources of food was far less of a problem logistically.

'We've heard your Kava Beans are primo tasty' Major Sheppard told Cowen, putting on his best smile.

'Tava Beans' Teyla corrected him, 'and yes they are' she confirmed. 'The Athosians have always valued our trading links with the Genii and I hope that these links will continue now that my people have come to live with our Terran friends.'

Cowen pursed his lips. 'I must confess I have never before heard of the Terran people' he admitted. 'You seem more advanced technologically that most of the societies the Genii have contact with, what with your weapons and the medicines you talk of' he said.

'We don't get out much' Sheppard replied.

'You have been hiding from the Wraith?' Cowen asked.

Sheppard grinned. 'Not really how we do things' he told him. 'We haven't really had much contact with the wraith until recently though' he said.

'Then you are fortunate' Cowen told him. 'We are a peaceful people but the wraith still come to our world and cull the Genii though we never do anything to provoke them' he said.

'Yeah that pacifism thing doesn't work out too well if you're just the next item on the menu' Sheppard commiserated. 'The Hoffans are trying to make themselves less tasty but the real solution is to be the ones higher on the food chain' he said. 'You see it all comes down to food in the end' he added with a smile.

Cowen looked thoughtful. 'We will need more than you offer' he said.

'More?' Sheppard queried.

'I don't think you understand how cool these medicines are' Ford interjected. 'We've got drugs that cure every disease, other ones that speed up how fast injuries heal...'

'You ask for much of our harvest' Cowen interrupted him. 'New crops will have to be planted in sufficient quantities to replenish our stores or it is the Genii who will starve' he continued. 'That amount of planting will require new land to be cleared. Clearing more land is slow, hard work and it will lose us a great amount of growing time between now and the next harvest season' he said.

'Okay, What if clearing land was fast and easy?' Sheppard asked.

Cowen chuckled. 'You know a quick and easy way of uprooting the stump of a three-hundred year old tree?' he asked.

'As a matter of fact, I do' Sheppard replied, turning to Ford who was grinning. 'And I think you'll like chainsaws too' he added.

Generally speaking they rarely utilised anything with as little explosive power as C4 but they usually carried a few pounds of the stuff for when a naquadah/potassium demolition charge had a little too much pep and Ford seemed to be enjoying himself as he planted the charge in the old tree-stump near the village.

The Genii were all stood around at what Sheppard told them was a safe distance as Ford joined them, a remote detonator in his hands and a grin on his face. 'This is going to be loud' Sheppard warned, putting his fingers in his ears the other Terrans and Teyla doing likewise and the villagers following suit.

'Fire in the hole' Ford called out, pressing the detonator. The resulting explosion tearing the old tree-stump apart and leaving what was left of it as a shattered mess in a shallow crater.

'It's what we call C4' Ford explained to the shocked and apparently impressed Genii.

It's a explosive made from cyclotrimethylene trinitramine mixed with a plasticiser' McKay noted, 'not that any of that makes any sense to you' he added, the X-COM Troopers not being the only blunt, undiplomatic people on the Atlantis expedition. 'It's very stable and safer to use than most other kinds of chemical explosives' he noted. 'I made some up once using my home chemistry set' he recalled. 'We would have had the best Canada Day fireworks in the street if my little sister hadn't ratted me out to Mom' he said sadly.

Cowen turned to Sheppard. 'If you can supply us with a sufficient quantity of C4, we will supply you with the crop you require' he told him.

'So, this instead of the medicine?' Sheppard replied.

'As well as the medicine' Cowen responded. 'And these chainsaws you talked of' he added.

Sheppard sighed. 'I thought you said the Genii were fair traders?' he asked Teyla.

'The Athosians have always been able to achieve a reasonable bargain' Teyla replied, 'however we were never so desperate to buy' she noted.

'The invisible hand of the free market strikes again' McKay quipped. 'Three million light-years from the nearest copy of the Wealth of Nations and Adam Smith still has us by the balls' he said.

'I'll have to go home and check with my superiors that it's okay to trade you the C4' Sheppard told Cowen.

'I'm sure we can come to terms' Cowen said confidently. 'Teyla, thank you for bringing us these new trading partners' he continued, addressing the Athosian guide. 'Please, stay as our guests' he offered. 'There will be a harvest ceremony later' he told them.

'Wonderful' Teyla said with a smile which became a grimace after Cowen turned away. The Genii were not known as being in any way a fun people.

'I'll be returning to Atlantis with you then' McKay told Sheppard brightly.

'No you won't, I promised Zelenka I'd keep you away at least another few hours' Sheppard replied. 'He says you keep interfering with his department's project.'

'His department is a joke' Rodney responded harshly. 'Once that robot sub confirmed the location of the Mobile Drilling Platform and found it was still intact I should have been the one put in charge of the mission to get a team down there and get her running again' he declared.

'Well you weren't' Sheppard told him. 'You wanted oversight over the other team recovering the wraith tech from that old Supply Ship' he pointed out. 'You can't get all the good jobs McKay.'

'I could have run both projects, and made sure the crew working on the weapon satellite, and still found time for these field-trips easily' McKay insisted.

'With or without those fancy drugs Weir doesn't like her people taking?' Sheppard asked knowingly.

'She totally exaggerates the danger of those' McKay stated. 'Worst case scenario an occasional power-nap in the sarcophagus to fix any physical damage' he said.

'Zelenka is perfectly capable of doing the work Rodney' Sheppard told him.

'I could do it quicker' McKay replied. 'Oh come on what the hell am I going to do at a harvest festival?' he asked rhetorically.

'Eat?' Sheppard suggested.

McKay blinked. 'Okay, that doesn't sound so bad' he conceded.

'And I reckon that girl Sora was giving you the eye' Sheppard lied.

'The hot blond one?' McKay asked. 'Didn't her father say she was betrothed?' he queried.

'Hey, that's still a long way from actually being married' Sheppard told him.

'You're right, we're the interesting new guys in town' McKay realised. 'I, mean we, should cash in on that before they realise we aren't that cool' he reasoned.

'Now you're using that brain for something worthwhile' Sheppard told him.

'Right, you're right' McKay said, straightening up.

'And think about it Rodney' Sheppard said quietly, 'no electricity, no central heating, no cable TV... well how do you think they keep themselves warm and entertained when the sun goes down?' he asked, trying to keep a straight face.

When he returned from Atlantis later after Weir and Vaselov approved the trade, Sheppard's nagging concern that he might just possibly have talked McKay into a course of action that might result in a shotgun wedding, or perhaps a pitchfork injury was replaced by a bigger problem in that he was greeted by armed people in uniforms he hadn't seen before and was forced at gunpoint towards a barn where a concealed hatch led down to a vast bunker complex.

'Okay, so not the people we thought they were' Sheppard observed as he was pushed into a room where Teyla, Ford and McKay were sitting around a large rectangular table with Cowen at the head, wearing the same uniform as the others.

'Take a seat Major' Cowen told him, his tone indicating it wasn't an invitation so much as an order.

'Can somebody bring me up to speed?' Sheppard requested of the ret of his team.

'Rodney got very bored and decided to take a look around' Teyla replied, 'he found something I believe our hosts very much wish to be kept secret' she told him.

'My scanner picked up neutron radiation coming from down here' McKay said. 'They've been skimping on the radiation shielding too so we don't want to spend too much time in the vicinity assuming we have any long-term plans for children without extra fingers and toes' he added.

'Our scientists say the radiation levels are perfectly safe' Cowen stated.

'Well they're wrong' McKay replied flatly. 'They're trying to manufacture atomic weapons, nothing special just uranium fission' he told Sheppard. 'A few tens of kilotons at best.'

'Nukes?' Sheppard replied. 'So why the hell did they want our C4?' he asked.

'They need good quality conventional explosives if they want to build an implosion type device' McKay explained. 'My guess is that they don't even have enough enriched uranium for the bombs yet but they're basically on the right track.'

'Doctor McKay seems very knowledgeable on the subject' Cowen said, greatly understanding given what he had already heard the Terran scientist say openly.

'He'd already run off at the mouth long before the Genii dragged us down here too Sir' Ford told Sheppard. 'Too late to plead ignorance.'

'Great' Sheppard replied with a sigh. 'So, assuming from the fact you haven't shot us already you're probably not going to just yet, what's the story?' he asked Cowen.

Cowen leaned forward in his chair. 'As you say, normally you would have already been shot for discovering our secret' he began. 'The Genii were once a great confederation of planets' he told them. 'Millennia ago, the Wraith had driven us to the brink of total annihilation. Our forefathers sought the protection of bunkers such as these which were originally created for wars long forgotten and it was here that a small number of our people managed to survive undetected' he said. 'Over the course of many, many years, generation after generation, we have made technological developments here in secret so that one day we might be able to once again step out into the light as who we really are' he said.

'The primitive farmer thing is just a front' Sheppard responded.

'So the Wraith do not suspect' Teyla added.

'We do have many mouths to feed so the farms are more than merely a disguise' Cowen replied, 'they help support the bulk of our population living underground' he said.

'They plan to build their atomic bombs and sneak them aboard any grounded Wraith Hives they can reach' McKay told Sheppard. 'We were talking about it before you showed up.'

Sheppard raised his eyebrows. 'Did you tell them that...'

'That we've already pulled that one ourselves?' McKay interrupted. 'Yes' he said. 'I also told them that given the size of a Hiveship their teeny-weenie fission bombs wouldn't be man enough for the job unless they were lucky enough to trigger a secondary detonation which is far from guaranteed' he said.

'Is this true?' Cowen asked Sheppard.

'I'd have to accept Rodney's word on that' Sheppard replied, looking to McKay to explain further.

'Look' McKay began, trying to explain this as patiently as he could. 'The most you can _possibly_ get out of a fission bomb is an explosion equivalent to five hundred thousand tons of TNT and to do that you need a huge amount of highly enriched fissile material and you'll have a device that is too big and heavy to actually use' he said. 'Realistically you'll get a useable weapon less than a tenth of that yield, more likely a twentieth, and you're trying to use that to destroy a spaceship which is up to eleven kilometres long' he said. 'Good luck' he said with a smirk.

'So how did you manage it like you say you did?' Cowen asked.

McKay looked to Sheppard for an indication he should answer, receiving a nod from the Major to let him know to continue. 'We _were_ lucky, we _did_ trigger a secondary explosion using two even smaller devices than you're constructing but they were placed deeper in the ship than you're likely to manage' he told the Genii. 'If you want a _guaranteed_ kill on a Wraith Hive you need something bigger than a fission device' he said. 'Frankly even a fusion warhead with a few megatons of yield might not necessarily get the job done.'

'Fusion?' Cowen responded quizzically.

'You use the heat and pressure of a fission detonation to induce the deuterium and tritium isotopes of hydrogen to fuse' McKay explained.

'Much, _much_ bigger bang' Sheppard said.

Cowen now looked extremely intrigued. 'Could you tell us how to build such an improved design?' he asked.

'Yes but it might be a while before you can' McKay replied.

'In the meantime I wouldn't worry about it anyway' Sheppard said with a smile. 'We're going to handle the wraith as soon as we can find out where they're holed up' he said confidently.

'You have a stockpile of these fusing weapons then?' Cowen inquired.

'It's "fusion" not fusing' McKay corrected him, 'and we've got something much better in mind when we go after the Wraith again' he said.

'You have even more powerful weapons than you've already described?' Cowen asked doubtfully.

Ford laughed. 'I don't think he'd believe us if we told him' he said.

'Let's just say that we're pretty sure we can take out a Hive when we find one and leave it at that' Sheppard told him. 'The problem is finding them.'

Cowen scratched his chin. 'I'll have to talk to the rest of our leaders' he said, 'but if you can prove what you've been saying then we might be able to help each other a great deal' he told them seriously. 'You see we've known how to find the Wraith for some time, we've just never had the means to use that knowledge' he told his guests.

Sheppard, McKay, Ford and Teyla looked at each other. 'Cowen' Sheppard began, turning back to the Genii leader. 'This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship' he said.

* * *

**Mining Settlement - P2C-257 – October 2004**

The slaves who had worked the mines didn't know why their latest Jaffa overseers had simply packed up and left through the chappa'ai one day but given that the mine was still far from spent they suspected that once again they were about to find themselves with a new god to worship.

Until a decade ago, and for as many generations as the elders knew of before that, they had belonged to Ra, digging the precious ore from the ground in order to supply his great fleets. Then when inexplicably the Supreme System Lord vanished one day they had shortly thereafter found themselves the property of his brother Apophis and laboured for him for another three years before he too lost control of their world.

Since the Jaffa of Apophis left the slaves had served other goa'uld, though only for a short time before each one in turn was replaced by a successor. To the slaves it meant little whether the Jaffa wielding the whips bore the insignia of Sokar, Baal or Morrigan, the sting on leather on flesh was the same, only the prayers they had to teach their children altered.

It had been many sunsets since the Jaffa had left, and some of the people were starting to dare to hope that none would ever be seen again. Freed from the hard labour in the mine the men were able to put more time into working the farms that fed them and by next harvest their children should eat better than they ever had before. It wasn't a harsh world to live on, it was green and lush, neither too hot nor too cold where they lived and used to back-breaking toil they would soon be able to carve out a better life for themselves from the grassland and forests. One day the more intrepid decided to bury the ring of the gods in order that they might remain free and they dug a pit beside it and toppled the ring into the hole, heaping dirt upon it so that none could ever step through again.

Like so many dreams it came to an end abruptly one day alas as a sound in the sky they knew well echoed above their heads on an overcast day. The thunder of the flying chariots of the gods was something they recognised easily and it meant that they would surely be serving a new master before nightfall. They would be forced to dig up the ring once more and likely suffer punishment for the temerity of trying to oppose the will of the gods but hopefully it would not be too severe.

Some hotheads spoke of fighting the Jaffa but they were quickly talked around by those who remembered what had happened a generation ago when others had attempted to drive off the warriors of Ra. It was suicide to try and take on the inhumanly strong Jaffa who were so skilled in battle and armed with their terrifying magical weapons, better to come to terms with the inevitable and hope this new master was not too harsh as they kneeled and swore fealty.

The village was less than a thousand paces from the mine and the slaves came together and waited for the Jaffa to come after the small flying chariot set itself down next to the stone pyramid where the larger ships the Jaffa called "Ha'tak" used to occasionally rest themselves. Four figures wearing armour seemed to be looking over the mine entrance for a while before they set out towards the village.

As they approached the villagers noted that these new Jaffa wore different armour than the ones they had seen before and although they wore metal glyphs that signified their god on their heads like the most important Jaffa it was born on a strange blue hat not their forehead.

'We should kneel' the oldest of the slaves advised and they dropped to their knees as the Jaffa arrived. 'What god do we now serve?' he asked nervously.

'Any you like, or none at all if you want' came the reply. 'Say can you people get up, you're making this even more awkward than it would be.'

'They must think we're Jaffa' one of the other strangers suggested to the one who had already spoken.

'Wonderful' the first responded with a sigh. 'We're not Jaffa, we're just people like you' he said loudly.

'But you came from the sky' one of the slaves replied, they were all still kneeling.

'Okay, so we're people like you with fancier toys' the man conceded. 'Come on, get up' he requested again. 'You're embarrassing me' he said.

The slaves slowly started to get off their knees and a few were brave enough to raise their heads and take a better look. 'We are ready to work in the mine again and ask that we not be punished to burying the ring of the gods' the oldest slave said.  
'We're not going to do anything to you because you buried the stargate' the first stranger responded, 'but at least now we know why we had to fly here because we couldn't get the one at the SGC to lock to your gate coordinates' he said. 'You might even be the last people we have to tell this too, most of the inhabited worlds we've taken over got visits weeks ago.'

The stranger who appeared to be the leader reached into a pocket and pulled out a piece of thin parchment. 'Excuse me' he said, coughing to clear his throat. 'Firstly let me introduce myself' he said. 'My name is Colonel Louis Ferretti and I command SG-2, who are the people with me' he explained. 'Secondly, on behalf of the Secretary General of the United Nations of Earth I am pleased to announce that given this world lies within the area of space known to the System Lords as the Tau'ri Protectorate' he continued, looking down at his notes, 'that consequently you are now all under our care and protection and will receive any appropriate relief aid and assistance you require' he said.

'What does that mean?' the village elder asked, confused.

Ferretti put away his notes. 'It means if you dig up the stargate again we'll be able to send you food, medicine and some people to build you a nicer hut to live in' he replied, looking with some distain at their ramshackle homes. 'More importantly it means that if any Goa'uld or Jaffa son-of-a bitch ever turns up here again and tries to force you to work in that fucking deathtrap of a mine over there then we will kick his ass' the commanding officer of SG-2 stated firmly.

'I don't think they're getting it Sir' Lieutenant Sands told him, looking over their faces.

'It's never easy' Ferretti muttered to himself. 'Okay' he began again. 'This planet and every other world that lies within two-hundred and fifty light-years of my planet, which is called Earth, now belongs to Earth because of a Treaty we signed with the Goa'uld System Lords' he told them. 'Now we aren't goa'uld' he said flatly, 'we're just people, ordinary men and women like you' he said. 'You don't need to worship us or anything like that, you're free to live here exactly as you wish' he continued, 'we're just introducing ourselves, explaining the situation and offering help.'

'If you are simply men like us then why do you not serve the gods?' one of the more courageous locals asked suspiciously.

'Because they aren't gods at all, they're just aliens who pretend to be' Ferretti replied. 'They don't have magic, they just have advanced technology and tricks' he said. 'We don't serve them because our weapons are just as powerful as theirs, more so' he declared. 'They're just bullies, nothing more and we faced them down.'

'We might want to blow something up and fire off a few shots to prove it Sir' Lieutenant Sands advised.

'We'll blast a few chunks off that big statue in front of the pyramid later' Ferretti agreed. 'Before than I'm thinking hearts and minds Lieutenant' he said, smiling. 'Is anyone here sick or injured?' he asked loudly. 'If so then we'll make them better before we go and we've also got plenty of candy for the kids' he added.

'I was hoping to find a tavern' Sergeant Bell complained.

'After all my years with the stargate program I'm still hoping to find a planet full of nymphomaniacs where there's ten women for every man but I'm getting used to the disappointment' Ferretti responded. 'Also I still need a volunteer to clamber up the pyramid and raise the flag so I'd better not hear any more complaints about this mission or it won't be a voluntary assignment' he added.

'Think we'll re-open the naquadah mine Sir' Sands asked. 'I mean with modern machinery and hardhats and actual pay for the workers?'

'Not economical to mine for it when we've got the big asteroid' Ferretti replied. 'There might be something else worth digging up though, the geological survey teams will find out' he said confidently, they were getting good at that now.

'You know one day I might like to settle down on a nice planet like this, maybe here' Sergeant Bell observed. 'I mean once there's a proper town' he added as a proviso.

'I'll bet as soon as we go public, and they agree some rules on dealing with the existing populations and legal issues on legal jurisdiction and land ownership, millions of people will want to emigrate off Earth to the new colonies' Lieutenant Sands suggested. 'I mean none of these worlds are what you could call overpopulated are they?' he asked rhetorically.

'Just as long as we're fair with the natives this time when we start pushing into the new frontier' Ferretti responded, hoping that the people of P2C-257 and the other former slaves who the goa'uld had transplanted onto worlds now within the Tau'ri Protectorate weren't going to end up on reservations when the new colonists from Earth inevitably arrived.

* * *

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – October 2004**

As the sun started to set on the horizon Tyrus found himself standing alone on one of the balconies of the main tower on Atlantis. It felt slightly strange to be wearing his Genii military uniform again after so many years in which he had mostly dressed in disguise as a primitive peasant and it was slightly snug around the middle indicating he might need to drop a few pounds. 'Good Evening Father' his daughter Sora greeted him, 'I mean Sir' she corrected herself as she joined him on the balcony, her own uniform matching his.

'Sora' Tyrus responded, turning to smile at her although it looked forced. Earlier today their joint mission with the Terrans to the Wraith Hive had gone better than he could have thought possible. They had infiltrated the grounded hive known to the Genii using small devices on their belts that actually made them invisible and it was doubtful that the Wraith even knew they had ever been there. Interfacing the memory storage device they had taken with them with the grounded hive's computer and downloading as much navigational information as they could before leaving had been simple. Generations ago the Genii had managed to shoot down and salvage a Wraith Dart and among the technology was the data storage and recording device which had contained the location of the hive the dart came from, now it held far more valuable intelligence, perhaps where every hiveship could be found.

It had gone so smoothly it was almost anticlimactic in fact. Tyrus and Sora as the Genii on the mission team had been expecting _some_ action but the Terrans simply did the job quickly and quietly without fuss or seemingly without any display of nerves. They seemed confident during the mission briefing beforehand that even if they _were_ discovered they could readily shoot their way out anyway, with the threat of possibly hundreds of Wraith opponents blocking their exit route fazing them not one bit, but in the event it had not been necessary to unleash their unfeasibly powerful hand-weapons on the enemy. After sneaking back out of the hiveship they had flown back to Atlantis in what they called a "Puddle Jumper" undetected and unmolested and now their scientists were going over the data carefully somewhere else in the city.

'You are troubled' Sora observed. Her father's moods were an open book to her, after the death of her mother some years ago he had been her world.

The Genii officer sighed. 'These people concern me' he said honestly.

'How so?' Sora queried, 'from what we have seen they will be the mightiest allies against the Wraith the Genii have ever had' she said.

Tyrus looked out at the sunset once more. 'You were there when they demonstrated the power of their personal weapons' he said. 'Stood beside me earlier today when those fighter craft performed impossible manoeuvres overhead at speeds which eclipse any we have seen a Wraith Dart manage' he continued before frowning. 'Sora they are not just living in the Lost City of the Ancestors and using their devices they are _improving_ upon technologies we could only _dream_ of possessing.'

'The Terrans are very advanced' Sora agreed.

'Advanced?' Tyrus repeated, turning back to Sora. 'They're _terrifying_ ' he declared. 'They could crush us like insects at a whim' he stated flatly. 'Worse than that the X-COM Colonel practically told us outright that they _would_ if we ever crossed them' he added.

'They are so few' Sora noted, there were a few hundred of them in the city at best.

'With the resources of billions of people and many worlds supporting them' Tyrus replied. 'We are so far behind them that the best the Genii might hope for to become a loyal vassal, perhaps a source of cheap cannon-fodder against the Wraith or other human societies that don't want to accept Terran domination.'

'You think them conquerors?' Sora asked. 'They do not strike me that way' she said. 'Unless it was all an elaborate act I can't envision their leader Weir as harbouring imperialist ambitions.'

'I looked in her eyes' Tyrus told his daughter. 'There's an iron strength of will under that well-meaning pacifist facade mark my words' he said. 'She's the type that would concede an argument for the sake of diplomacy, sacrifice some of her gains for peace and share rewards and credit with those who didn't deserve it but I'm afraid that some of our own leaders would seek to exploit that as weakness and overplay their hand' he continued. 'Push her too far and she's going to come back out fighting and when she does she'll let the leash off her attack dogs.'

'For thousands of years the goal of the Genii has been to defeat the Wraith' Sora said. 'Live openly under the sun once more.'

'The goal of the Genii has been for our civilisation to survive' Tyrus corrected her, 'defeating the Wraith was just seen as the best way to accomplish that and also allow us to re-establish the Genii Confederation as a leading power in this galaxy' he said. 'Let's say the Terrans do manage to defeat the Wraith where the Ancestors failed, what then?' he asked rhetorically. 'Do you think Elizabeth Weir would allow us to reassert our authority over worlds we lost centuries ago if the people there preferred to remain independent?' he continued. 'Looking at what we could offer them would neutral planets choose to align themselves with the Genii or the Terrans?' he wondered.

'But they aren't even from this galaxy' Sora exclaimed. 'They're foreigners.'

'Foreigners who carry within themselves the genetic legacy of the Ancestors' Tyrus responded. 'Hardly any of the humans who live in this galaxy can use Ancestor devices because we lack the gene to make it work' he said. 'The reason why Major Sheppard and other Terrans _can_ is obviously, as they themselves theorise, because some of the Ancestors who fled this city for Terra ended up interbreeding with the humans there.'

'They truly _are_ the children of the Ancestors' Sora realised.

'More than we are at least' her father replied. 'The Ancestors merely made us in their image but the Terrans descend in part from the builders of this wondrous place' he said. 'They _are_ the Ancestors returning and we can't possibly compete with that kind of propaganda gift' he added glumly before another thought occurred and he laughed humourlessly. 'I trust you noted that they let us both keep our sidearms' he asked his daughter, indicating the standard issue Genii pistols they both had holstered on their belts.

'I think that was to make us more comfortable' Sora reasoned.

'It's telling us they don't really think we're a threat Sora' Tyrus told her. 'When they told us they can bring the dead back to life as the Ancestors could in the old tales I think they meant it' he said. 'Earlier I made a joke to Captain Gaston about what they'd do if we wanted to steal a piece of technology and took a hostage to try and force them to let us go' he told her, 'he said they'd shoot us _through_ the hostage heal them afterwards and throw our corpses into the sea.'

Sora pursed her lips. 'So what do you think we should do?' she asked.

'I'm going to advise Cowen that we help them fight the Wraith in any way we can and try not to provoke them until we discover some means to prevent them immediately crushing us in retaliation' Tyrus replied. 'In the meantime, and though it pains me as a father to suggest this, perhaps you could use your charms to get to know Major Sheppard' he said. 'He seemed to be attracted to you when we first met' he noted.

'When you immediately told him I was betrothed you mean?' Sora responded, smiling.

'Well we were still pretending to be peasant farmers at the time' Tyrus replied, 'I couldn't exactly tell him if he asked you on a date that you were about to rotate duty assignments and were going to be to be underground teaching junior cadets knife-fighting techniques for the next few weeks now could I?' he asked reasonably.

In his laboratory in one of the other towers Rodney McKay noticed Weir and Vaselov arriving and he looked up from his computer. 'Just in time' he told them. 'Major Sheppard only just got here himself' he added, indicating the pilot who was currently helping himself to some of McKay's special coffee blend.

'So what can you tell us Rodney?' Weir asked.

McKay turned in his chair. 'Well surprisingly despite their ignorant messing with it for all these years the memory storage the Genii gave us was clearly still working well enough for the Major and his team to carry out their mission successfully' he replied.

'You've got the coordinates of all the Wraith Hives?' Sheppard asked, adding creamer to his cup.

'No, unfortunately the hiveship you boarded only knew the location of the others within the quadrant of the galaxy both ourselves and the Genii inhabit' McKay replied.

'How many are there Doctor McKay?' Colonel Vaselov asked.

'Twenty-one' McKay replied, 'twenty actually because one of them is the one we already nuked' he told them. 'We could be looking at sixty or more in the whole galaxy.'

Vaselov smiled. 'It is a pity we do not have the locations of all of them but twenty will do for now' he said.

'Some of them are on the move' McKay told him. 'We're looking at fourteen either on the ground or orbiting planets with stargates' he said.

'Not enough jumpers to take out all fourteen at once' Sheppard said to Vaselov.

The Russian nodded. 'As long as we make sure to destroy the ones in orbit first any on the surface are unlikely to be able to take off before we can launch a second wave of attacks' he said.

Sheppard nodded. 'If we deploy seven jumpers, each with two warheads aboard, we could deliver the first strikes then each one travels straight to its next target' he said. 'Take out nearly a quarter of all the hiveships in the Pegasus Galaxy in an afternoon.'

'Killing untold numbers of Wraith in the process plus any humans aboard those ships' Weir pointed out.

'We cannot possibly free all those prisoners and if we try we risk the success of the mission' Vaselov told her sternly. 'A surprise attack is the best guarantee of success' he stated. 'The Wraith do not deserve our concern and the humans who will die are simply collateral damage.'

'Heartless of you' Weir replied as a rebuke.

'Those hiveships will kill far more if we do not launch this attack' Vaselov replied. 'We sacrifice a few thousand perhaps to save millions.'

'You know as soon as we do this every other Wraith ship in Pegasus is going to be running for cover in deep space wondering what the hell just happened' McKay spoke up.

'Yeah, their entire race is going to collectively crap themselves' Sheppard agreed, grinning. 'Assuming that's something they can actually _do_ ' he added.

'Well we know from dissecting them that the digestive system is there they just don't use it' McKay told him.

Colonel Vaselov crossed his arms. 'Doctor Weir you have the authority to approve this mission' he said. 'We have sufficient warheads, the means to deliver them and now the location of our targets' he continued. 'If you give the go-ahead we are ready to deal a blow against the Wraith harder than they have experienced in millennia at least, perhaps the most devastating ever' he told her, hoping she would give the green light herself and he wouldn't have to go over her head.

'I never thought I would ever be in a position to unleash Armageddon' Weir replied. 'It's like the greatest power-trip ever, accompanied by an urge to throw up' she said.

'As your military commander I strongly urge you to approve this operation' Vaselov told her, bringing himself to attention.

McKay looked at Weir's expression. 'As the Chief Scientist on the Atlantis expedition I concur' he said simply.

Sheppard smiled at Weir. 'I'd like to think of myself as your friend' he told her, 'it's the right call Elizabeth' he advised. 'These things use people for food, hunt us for pleasure' he said. 'They've been terrorising and preying on the humans of Pegasus since before people on Earth learned how to farm crops' he continued, 'they've got to go' he declared.

Elizabeth Weir looked down and collected her thoughts, she took an intake of breath then raised her head again to look Vaselov in the eyes. 'Take them out' she ordered, 'every Wraith ship you can' she continued, 'I'll leave the how entirely in your hands but I want them gone' she told him.

'As you order, so it shall be done' Vaselov responded then saluted her. 'Major Sheppard we need to plan and prepare immediately' he told his second-in-command.

As the military officers departed Weir turned to McKay. 'I think I just authorised the attempted genocide of a sapient species' she said sadly.

McKay shrugged. 'Maybe we can figure out another way to deal with them eventually' he replied, 'but for now nuclear incineration looks like the best option, unless you don't mind all the lives of the people they'll eat on your conscience if we _don't_ do this' he said.

'Rodney, I don't normally swear but if it's a choice between us or them getting fucked-over I choose them' Weir replied. 'And it's not like they haven't had it coming for a while.'

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

___The Genii led by Cowen were first encountered in SGA episode 1.08 Underground. They had been hiding their society from the Wraith for centuries pretending to be simple farmers whilst stockpiling weaponry and training troops in vast underground bunkers. In 2004 they were perhaps five years away from completing their atomic weapons program and were at the stage of designing the devices and trying to enrich uranium to put in them. __In canon the Atlantis people had a lot of trouble with the Genii over the years, their relationship in this situation however is likely to be far more amicable since they are both bringing something very useful to the table. ____Wraith Hives are truly gigantic, far larger than Atlantis they measure 11km in length and are extremely tough, being able to absorb a great deal of punishment to the hull. I don't think it's realistic to believe that a device that measures merely in the kiloton range would always take one out, even if detonated on the inside. The huge naquadah-enhanced warheads used by Stargate Earth on the other hand are ideal for the job!_

_____P2C-257 was a goa'uld controlled world with a naquadah mine mentioned in SG1 episode 4.12 Tangent. It was said to be within a day or so of Earth, travelling by Tel'tak, which would put it well inside the zone agreed to be ceded to Earth by the System Lords. __The human slaves on these worlds are going to find it bewildering that they don't belong to a goa'uld any more. Quite the culture shock for them when these Tau'ri from a planet they may have never even heard of show up and turn their world upside down. I pegged P2C-257 as originally belonging to Ra because it is so close to Earth and both this planet and Abydos (also relatively nearby) were ruled by him at one time._

_______Tyrus and his daughter Sora were Genii who helped infiltrate a Wraith Hive and download the locations of several others. That operation went much better than in canon thanks to the use of personal cloaks. __Given that the Wraith cannot detect cloaked Puddle Jumpers sneaking up on them and blowing them all to hell with naquadah-enhanced warheads is a very easy way to get rid of them if you catch one. 1.2 gigaton (twelve-hundred megaton) nuclear devices feature several times in SG1/SGA, they seem to be a standard high-yield warhead._  



	9. Chapter 9

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**Hills of Per-Bast – Bubastis – November 2004**

This mission has been developing into a total cluster-fuck since five minutes after we arrived, Commander Russell Sharp thought bitterly, watching through binoculars as yet another attempt to force the enemy defence lines stalled amidst a hail of incoming plasma. He was currently about a mile back from the front and could see and hear the ferocity of the fighting as a mix of X-COM light and heavy infantry supported by their remaining HWP's and a pair of hovertanks continued to probe forward, trying, and so far failing, to find a weak point.

They had known that the Jaffa of Bastet would fight hard, likely to the death to defend her capital world, but the skill with which they were doing it and the unexpected new weaponry the defenders were employing to hold back the Tau'ri invaders had caught Sharp and his troops more than slightly unawares. After successfully managing to secure a beachhead around the stargate and dealing with the planetary deathglider squadrons with naquadah-enhanced MANPADS Sharp had expected to be able to smash or push aside Bastet's army and launch a thunder-run spearheaded by his hovertanks all the way to the largest city on the planet but the Jaffa were not cooperating whatsoever.

'The prim'ta incubating bastards just won't fucking quit' Sharp observed in annoyance to his new aide, a Major originally from the 1st Airborne Brigade of the Japanese Self Defence Forces.

'Would we in their place Sir?' Major Tanikawa replied.

'No' Sharp conceded. 'Have we got final word on how many PA Troopers we lost in that ambush?' he asked.

'Nine fatalities, six of them permanent' Tanikawa replied. 'Thirteen other troopers out of action due to either wounds or severe Power-Armour damage.'

'Shit' Sharp responded quiety, looking at the ground for a moment before raising his head again. 'I got suckered good there' he admitted. 'Oldest trick in the book' he said, thinking back to the fighting which had occurred an hour before, about halfway between the stargate and these damn hills.

The X-COM forces had been advancing in column, following the course of the cobblestone roadway which led from the stargate to their objective and screened by hovertanks protecting their flanks. Roughly three miles into their march they had come under attack by two or three companies worth of Jaffa and as usual had shot them to pieces with full-auto fire, Bastet's warriors continuing to throw themselves at the Tau'ri foe long after it had proven to be an utter waste of lives and effort. With perhaps a third at most of the Jaffa remaining a horn had blown in the distance, apparently ordering them to retreat while there were still enough of them left to continue as a fighting force and they had complied, falling back in relatively good order.

Sharp didn't want a still unbroken enemy formation ending up behind his advance and as the Jaffa retreated towards a forest he ordered two platoons of Powered Armour Infantry to run them down and render them totally combat-ineffective. Seeing the PA Troopers chasing the Jaffa abandoned all pretence at order and began to flee as fast as they could run towards the safety of the trees, green bolts of Tau'ri plasma whistling past their ears.

The troopers realised it was a feigned retreat intended to draw them onto several batteries of hidden guns when a ripple of Heavy Staff-Cannon bolts shot out from the tree-line, the first volley wreaking horrific damage amongst the lead platoon. The Jaffa gunners got off a second volley, and some even managed a third shot before a storm of incoming full-auto fire from Heavy Plasma Rifles began to tear the tree-line apart, the forest already becoming a nightmare even before a pair of HWP's moved in and started ripping it up with their staff-gatlings.

As the dead and wounded troopers were retrieved and started to be transported back to the gate in four-wheel-drive vehicles Sharp ordered the advance to continue, more cautiously this time with replaceable machines sent ahead to scout instead of irreplaceable human beings. They got as far as a small village by a bridge which spanned a fast-flowing stream when Bastet's warriors scored another success. Once again the defenders of Bubastis proved their willingness to sacrifice themselves for their god as a Jaffa suicide-bomber with a naquadah device strapped to his chest appeared from nowhere and threw himself under the lead hovertank, blowing it, the bridge and the village to tiny pieces.

From that point on the resistance had become steadily more determined, and as Sharp and his troops reached the hills which represented the last geographical obstacle between them and the city they were greeted by so much raw firepower they had to pull back, regroup and drastically re-evaluate their opinion of the enemy.

Major Tanikawa saw something and pointed. 'They've got another gun battery up there on the hill with the two peaks' he said, Sharp looking where directed and frowning as he watched a flurry of bright lights climb into the sky then begin to arc down towards where the front line lay. 'I agree with your earlier assessment Sir they do seem to be much like the Plasma Charges dropped by Al'kesh' he said as the unguided energy bombs rained down in a random pattern.

'I _really_ want to get my hands on whatever they're using as a launcher' Sharp responded as he watched a second salvo being fired.

'I would imagine it is a linear accelerator of some kind fired like a mortar' Tanikawa reasoned. 'At least it lacks accuracy' he added as a positive.

'The opposition having indirect-fire artillery of _any_ kind is bad enough' Sharp responded. 'They're launching those things from the reverse slope, keeping out of our line-of-sight because they know if we could see them we could flash-fry them with laser cannon even at this range' he said then raised his binoculars to his eyes again looking around. 'Yup, just like I thought' he said. 'They've got artillery spotters and if you can believe this one they're communicating to their gun batteries via some kind of semaphore' he told his aide, watching a Jaffa on another hilltop waving flags.

'What should we do?' Tanikawa replied.

'Have a hovertank flash-fry the guys with the flags instead, that'll help' Sharp replied, 'it'll be quick at least for the poor bastards' he reasoned. The main gun on a hovertank could go through a reasonable thickness of armour-plate at four times the distance the Jaffa spotters were place, it would turn them to vapour in an instant.

While Tanikawa relayed the order to start zapping the Jaffa spotting teams via his radio headset Sharp looked around again. A couple of hundred yards off the remains of what had been a small bunker half concealed by a number of now charred trees was still smouldering from earlier. Inside there were likely a few equally charred Jaffa and some distance directly in front of the bunker sat a testimony of their stubborn defence in the form of a pair of knocked-out HWP's.

If the "Energy Mortars" or whatever they ended up calling them had been a serious annoyance then running into a number of camouflaged gun-pits holding the Plasma Repeater Cannon usually carried by the latest model deathgliders had been a very nasty shock. Firing a higher-velocity bolt with superior armour-piercing ability to a regular Staff-Cannon the Repeater Cannon would have already represented an increased threat to the Tau'ri soldiers even without its drastically superior rate-of-fire, but its ability to fire a rapid salvo that would take out a HWP or a Trooper in Powered-Armour in mere seconds had allowed the new type of Jaffa field artillery to stop the human advance dead in its tracks.

X-COM forces fighting the goa'uld were not well suited to this kind of attritional warfare. Even though this operation was much larger than most they typically relied on a massive firepower advantage to overcome the numerically superior enemy and with that narrowed it wasn't the walkover they typically enjoyed. Moreover the Jaffa defences were properly dug-in using the terrain to their advantage and apparently Bastet had learned how to effectively use her heavy guns, with the Staff-Cannon and Repeater-Cannon having overlapping fields of fire and protecting each other.

Kali had been the first goa'uld to demonstrate it was possible to at least hold-up a Tau'ri ground assault if you only used your field-artillery properly and given that she was a long-time ally of Bastet it was possible, indeed plausible, that she had passed on the benefits of her wisdom. Even a relatively simple tactical doctrine that attempted to utilise what they had available more effectively was better than nothing and added to the new weapons the defenders of Bubastis were finally managing to achieve what many Jaffa had considered impossible, the Tau'ri were being made to bleed for every inch of ground they took.

Casualty rates still favoured the human soldiers by a huge margin of course, mortar fire and rocket-propelled-grenades were smashing bunker after bunker and any Jaffa infantry that showed themselves were ruthlessly cut down, but it was a hard grind and they needed to start making headway soon or else elements of Bastet's fleet were going to arrive back in orbit long before they got through these hills and then likely bombardment from space would force an X-COM withdrawal.

All in all it was a hell of a good showing and in some ways Sharp was sorry he had to do this to them but he wasn't going to be leaving this planet with his tail between his legs. The Jaffa had proven they were starting to get to grips with how to use artillery but they still had a great deal to learn from the masters.

'Sir, the artillery support we requested has arrived through the stargate and the first battery is ready to commence bombardment of the enemy positions' Tanikawa reported. 'They have adjusted their ballistic computers to allow for the local gravity and air pressure and will be using a UAV as a spotter.'

'Order our lead formations to pull back from the enemy and keep their heads down' Sharp ordered, 'we don't want to lose anyone to shells dropping short.'

The Jaffa had begun cheering when they first saw the Tau'ri seemingly start to retreat but their joy was short lived when the tiny drone aircraft started circling above heralding the first explosion of a high-explosive shell falling from the sky. More followed in quick succession as a second battery of 105mm guns added its weight of fire to the first, a total of twelve M119A1 Howitzers having been manhandled through the gate along with a large supply of ammunition.

Each gun firing a steady three rounds a minute the projectiles continued to crash in relentlessly for the next quarter of an hour whilst Sharp and the other X-COM soldiers watched with satisfaction. 'Remind me to push the IOA for approval for a few of those new 155mm guns the US Marines suggested we added to the inventory' Sharp requested of his aide.

'The M777?' Tanikawa asked.

'That's the one' sharp confirmed. 'If we're going to be dealing with this kind of crap on a regular basis I want heavier artillery I can call on in the interim until I can finally persuade someone to mount an MLRS Launcher on a hovertank chassis' he said. 'Next time the Jaffa are going to dig in deeper.'

'The IOA might baulk at the additional equipment cost Sir' Tanikawa suggested.

'Considering the value of the hardware we've already lost today half a dozen more howitzers and a few thousand shells are a drop in the ocean Major' Sharp replied then paused. 'Looks like we might have to take the opposition more seriously in future' he observed thoughtfully as the guns gradually blasted a way clear through the hills. 'They've been learning and they're starting to get a lot more creative with their tactics too' he continued, 'good thing we've still got a lot more practice at conducting modern warfare.'

Tanikawa watched the continuing bombardment. 'Bludgeoning them into submission with artillery does lack finesse if you don't mind me saying so Commander' he commented.

'I just wish I had decided to call up the guns a few hours earlier' Sharp replied then frowned. 'You know they were just a little bit too prepared for us' he stated. 'Like they got tipped off we would be dropping by.'

'If that were the case it seems doubtful that the diversionary attack Lord Yu and his fleet launched into Kali's territory designed to draw off the ships guarding Bubastis when Bastet came to her allies aid would have worked' Tanikawa responded.

'Maybe' Sharp replied, 'or else someone is being very clever' he said, hoping it was just paranoia. 'Okay, we'll soften them up for another five minutes and then start a fresh advance behind a creeping barrage' he ordered. 'And find out why the additional RPG-29's and the thermobaric rounds for them haven't turned up yet' he continued. 'I want everything in front of us that looks like it might be a bunker blown all to hell and any hole big enough to fit a Jaffa in gets a flamethrower turned on it.'

Sharp looked up into the sky where it looked like carrion birds were circling. 'Well I guess _someone_ is having a good day' he decided.

* * *

**High Orbit – M6R-214 – November 2004**

Rodney was not comfortable in his EVA suit but realised that with the rear compartment of the puddle-jumper open to space he would have been far more uncomfortable not wearing it right now, for a start his blood would be boiling.

Maintaining complete radio silence just in case the Wraith might pick up a stray transmission and be alerted to the presence of the small cloaked vessel parked right next to them McKay methodically went though his mental checklist as he armed the twelve-hundred megaton nuclear warhead in front of him as Lieutenant Ford watched placidly through the visor of his own suit.

The warhead, basically an inert space-mine, had been designed to be as undetectable as it could be for this mission, covered in radar-absorbent material and with also no EM signature of its own. However as the physicist finished the task of making it live he then completed the process by switching on the personal cloaking device he had added to all of them as an added feature. The things were expensive but they might only get one chance at doing this so it was considered worth using up a few of them just in case the Wraith were more alert than they thought they were.

Ford watched the warhead vanish and gave McKay a thumbs-up as he reached down to where he could get hold of the thing and with Rodney's assistance they together placed the device as gently as they could against the outer hull of the Hiveship Sheppard had backed them up against.

McKay beckoned Ford closer and touched helmets so they could hear each other. 'I told you duct tape would work in a vacuum, they used it on the moon' he told him.

'That stuff is like the Force from Star Wars' Ford replied.

'It's got a light side, a dark side and it holds the universe together' McKay finished for him. 'Well in this case it's going to help us atomise a chunk of it' he said.

Stepping away from McKay Ford picked up a spanner he had left nearby for the purpose and hit it against the still sealed pressure door leading to the front cabin. The sound travelled through the metal and hearing the signal John Sheppard began flying them clear while Rodney closed the ramp and began to re-pressurise the rear compartment.

Heading towards the spacegate Sheppard waited until the pressure was equalised and then opened the internal door so he could talk to Ford and McKay. 'I hope you didn't forget to arm it before sticking it to the hive' he said.

'I won't dignify that with a response' McKay responded irately, struggling to take off his helmet. 'I hope you're getting us a good long way from that hive' he added.

'Going to be a hell of a big bang Sir' Ford added, having more success at liberating himself from his own EVA helmet.

'Except for the complete lack of sound you mean' McKay interjected, rolling his eyes.

'I'm going to pull us out half way to the space-gate' Sheppard told them, 'after the hiveship goes boom we should be able to make a high-speed run and get through the gate to our next target before the Wraith get their shit together.'

'Why not leave now?' Rodney asked. 'It's due to go off in five minutes anyway whether you use the remote detonator or not.'

'I want to watch' Sheppard replied with an evil chuckle, 'besides which we need to confirm the kill before we head for P3X-447 and nuke the hive on the ground there with number two' he added, indicating the second warhead that lay waiting to be deployed.

Ford laughed. 'Think the Wraith know what's about to happen to them?' he asked.

'In some ways I wish they did but no' Sheppard replied, 'want to press the button?' he asked Ford who had unlatched pulled off one of his suits gloves already.

'Cool' the lieutenant replied with a cheesy grin on his face as Sheppard passed him the detonator.

'Okay we're there, bringing her about' Sheppard announced, stopping the jumper and turning it around to face the now distant hiveship. 'Thought I'd bring some appropriate music' he said, reaching over and pressing play on the CD player he had placed in the co-pilot's chair, the voice of Johnny Cash starting to sound out.

_"And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder: One of the four beasts saying: "Come and see." And I saw. And behold, a white horse."_

Sheppard grinned as the Man in Black started to sing.

_"There's a man goin' 'round takin' names.  
An' he decides who to free and who to blame.  
Everybody won't be treated all the same.  
There'll be a golden ladder reaching down.  
When the man comes around."_

Ford flipped off the safety and pushed the red button, as he did so the naquadah-enhanced nuclear warhead detonated with a yield equivalent to eighty-thousand Hiroshima bombs. The liberated energy instantly turned a huge volume of the hive to plasma and although built tough the wraith vessel was not really designed to absorb that kind of instant damage.

Lieutenant Ford whooped as the hiveship exploded in a flash of light, the warhead having triggered just about everything that could explode on the vessel to do so in a titanic series of practically simultaneous secondary-explosions, eleven kilometres worth of ship blown to fragments.

_"Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers.  
One hundred million angels singin'.  
Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum.  
Voices callin', voices cryin'.  
Some are born an' some are dyin'.  
It's Alpha's and Omega's Kingdom come."_

'Okay let's get going' Sheppard said happily, turning the puddle-jumper around once more. 'Another hiveship is just begging for the same treatment' he declared enthusiastically, putting the jumper to full speed. 'Dial P3X-447 could you lieutenant?' he requested as they approached the orbiting stargate.

_"Till Armageddon, no Shalam, no Shalom.  
Then the father hen will call his chickens home.  
The wise men will bow down before the throne.  
And at his feet they'll cast their golden crown.  
When the man comes around."_

'I'm surprised we don't have darts or even a cruiser heading for the gate already' Ford commented as he started pressing the symbols that would dial their next destination.

'The wraith don't know why their hive exploded yet, they're probably just as freaked and confused as we would be' Sheppard replied. 'I don't think the Ancients ever used their cloaking tech for this kind of thing' he speculated as Ford finished keying in the address and the wormhole burst into life.

The stargate on P3X-447 was on the surface of the planet in a forest clearing and Sheppard steered them straight towards their second target, a grounded hive half buried under millions of tons of earth and vegetation. The song had finished to be replaced by another Johnny Cash hit, the lyrics of "A Boy named Sue" for some reason causing McKay to grimace.

'Okay I'm going to loop around the hive and make a run right across her back towards the stargate' Sheppard told the others. 'Are you _sure_ the drop won't trigger the bomb Rodney?' he asked as McKay worked on the second device.

'No they're designed to take a lot more shock than that' McKay replied.

Sheppard frowned. 'Because you know I could just land and...'

'It'll be fine just bring us in low' McKay cut him off. 'The wraith could realise any second that hives all over this quadrant of the galaxy are blowing up and we want to be out of here before they do.'

'The man wants low, he gets low' Sheppard said to himself as he piloted the puddle jumper towards the artificial line of overgrown hills in the distance which were in fact the buried hiveship.

'Slow is good too' McKay said loudly as he realised they were now tearing along just above the treetops.

'You mean for the drop right?' Sheppard checked.

'Well accuracy doesn't really matter too much because of the size of the target but we should try not to accidentally slam this device headlong into a tree trunk or a big rock' McKay advised.

'So it _could_ accidentally go off?' Sheppard responded.

'No because it might accidentally not go off when we want it to' McKay explained. 'Okay I'm ready here' he announced.

'Okay I'm bringing her around so we've got a straight run to the gate after we drop' Sheppard replied.

'No waiting around for the explosion this time' McKay replied, moving to open the rear hatch. 'On the surface in an atmosphere we might lose access to the gate even if we clear the blast radius' he said. 'It could be buried or just thrown somewhere.'

'Will the explosion be that big?' Ford asked. The hive rested a good few miles from the stargate.

'We're going to level an area of forest maybe a hundred and fifty kilometres across' McKay replied evenly.

Ford blinked. 'Okay, I can stand to miss explosion number two' he said slowly.

'We're on the bomb run and I've found a nice clearing you can drop into' Sheppard told them. 'It's not really in the centre of the hive though' he noted.

'Anywhere near the damn thing will be fine' McKay replied. 'Give me a hand with this' he requested of Ford indicating the nuclear device. 'It's as heavy as the last one.'

'Coming in low and slow' Sheppard told them as the puddle-jumper approached the target.

'As soon as we do this gun it' McKay told him.

'Just don't fall out the back' Sheppard replied, 'on my mark' he said. 'Three - Two - One – MARK.'

McKay and Ford heaved the bomb out of the back of the puddle-jumper. 'Bombs away' Ford yelled out as it fell a short distance and landed in some soft soil.

'Closing the ramp, get moving' McKay called out as Sheppard increased speed and altitude.

Sheppard smiled. 'Home in time for dinner after a good day's work' he said then he laughed as something occurred to him. 'I think we maybe just did the first drive-by nuking in the history of the universe' he joked.

'Just don't start playing gangsta rap' McKay requested seriously. 'Once we get to Atlantis they can raise the shield and then we can remote-detonate the bomb without doing very bad things to the control room' he said.

'Do you think the other jumpers are good too?' Ford asked. 'Getting the job done without taking casualties?'

'No reason to suppose not' Sheppard replied, concentrating as he prepared to thread the needle. 'Dial Atlantis' he told Ford.

'Yes Sir' Ford replied, pressing the familiar sequence. 'So what are we going to do tomorrow?' he asked as they saw the kawoosh from the stargate up ahead and sent their IDC code through.

'Sleep off the hangover from the big party tonight' Sheppard told him as they went on through the wormhole.

'There's going to be a party?' Ford queried as they arrived back in Atlantis and everyone present in the control room started cheering as the pilot gave them a thumbs-up.

'Oh yeah, beer, wine, Athosian girls you'll love it' Sheppard told him, switching on his radio. 'Raise the shield please' he requested.

'_Shield is raised_ ' came the reply.

'My turn' Sheppard said, turning the jumper around and taking the remote detonator Ford was now holding out to him.

'This is so unfair' McKay protested. 'I get to push the button on the next one' he insisted.

'I'll consider it' Sheppard replied. 'And for my next trick I'm going to make tens of millions of tons of starship vanish into thin air' he said, triggering the remote detonator.

Back on P3X-447 a wraith pilot who had been flying his dart around the planet on a test flight realised there was something wrong when his telepathic link to his queen and all the rest of his people was suddenly severed. He headed back to base at high speed and decided it wasn't exactly the best day of his extremely long life when he found a mushroom cloud twenty kilometres high and growing right on top of where his home used to be.

At least he wasn't alone in his misery. The scattered survivors of thirteen other hiveships were having an equally crappy time of it as the Children of the Ancients inflicted more losses on the Wraith in less than two hours than their creators had managed in their most successful campaign of the last war.

By the time Sheppard recovered from his hangover the entire Wraith species had collectively panicked and the remaining hiveships and cruisers all over the galaxy were heading for the safety of interstellar space as they tried to figure out what the hell had just happened and who did it.

Meanwhile deep in a trench at the bottom of the Lantean ocean something else stirred. Automated monitoring equipment far older than the city floating on the surface detected that something was very wrong with the weapon its creators had unleashed on the hated Alterans. In response it began to both power down the time-dilation field, which had preserved the complex it warded over for countless eons, and instruct stasis pods to begin to thaw out their occupants for the first time in over ten thousand years.

The Wraith were just unwitting pawns in the game, by taking them the Terrans had unfortunately just attracted the attention of the player.

**Ha'tak _Admiral Kuznetsov_ – Earth Orbit – December 2004**

'It's a fascinating idea Sir' Samantha Carter enthused, although Brigadier O'Neill looked rather less interested as she explained, this possibly being because he didn't understand the implications. He was mainly becoming bored waiting for the K_uznetsov_ to move into the right position to teleport up their target, unfortunately they still lacked Asgard beaming technology and were forced to utilise the less capable and shorter-ranged device copied from the one on _Redemption_.

'I'm sure it is Carter' O'Neill replied, checking his watch and then idly tapping his other hand against the pistol holstered at his side. This ship had more character before they stripped out all the goa'uld bling, he decided looking over the utilitarian plain metal walls that had replaced all the hieroglyphs in gold relief.

'No really Sir, although it's really only a thought experiment so far we know all the technology required is possible' Carter told him. 'Using the AI design Loki installed on Mars as a basic template we should be able to develop a fully self-aware supercomputer and then it's simply a matter of placing it inside a field generated by a modified time-dilation device' she said.

'Time-dilation?' Daniel queried, he was typically a lot more interested in such things than Jack.

Carter nodded. 'The Replicators showed it was possible to reverse the normal effect so that time progressed far faster inside the field than in the rest of the universe' she said. 'To the outside observer the AI would appear to be working ten-thousand times faster than normal' she continued, 'it's basically a cheat that even gets around normal limitations such as the speed of light.'

'Pity the President only wanted US Citizens in on this' O'Neill said regretfully, 'I know Teal'c would have loved to be here and Andianov might have enjoyed manhandling the slimy bastard if it proved necessary' he added.

'To be honest they wouldn't have been much help Sir' Carter responded, 'I don't need any assistance with the za'tarc detector and Daniel or yourself are both familiar with the Mind Probe' she noted.

'I just hope the son-of-a-bitch doesn't cooperate' O'Neill said, rubbing his hands with obvious glee.

'I'm still not sure the President will agree to handing him over to X-COM to be Mind-Raped Jack' Daniel commented.

'Not at first but we might be able to get some nice invasive psionic screening authorised' O'Neill said hopefully. 'Dig up enough juicy wrongdoing to persuade the man in the Oval Office to take the next step.'

'I thought you'd enjoy this assignment too much to be safely left in charge' a familiar voice interrupted causing the Commanding Officer of the SGC and the two members of SG-1 present to turn to the doorway in surprise.

'Lieutenant-General Hammond' O'Neill greeted him, 'I wasn't told you were onboard' he said.

'Just ringed up from the Pentagon' Hammond replied. 'The President decided that he wanted another senior officer present' he said, 'plus a member of the NID' he added, another man this one wearing a civilian suit appearing beside him. 'I don't know if you've all met agent Barrett?'

'He's poked his nose into the SGC a couple of times' O'Neill replied, directing a suspicious look at Barrett. Anyone involved in the NID was automatically to be treated with distrust according to his book, they were supposed to have cleaned up their act but even if they had they could still be pretty damn dirty.

'Colonel Chekov welcomed us aboard' Hammond told them. 'He didn't look happy with us being here' he observed.

'Don't take it personally Sir he keeps to Moscow time so he's probably just cranky at still being awake at this hour because we're here' O'Neill replied. 'And talking of time we should be expecting our guest right about...'

A human figure shimmered into existence on the transporter platform in the centre of the converted room. As it solidified it became clear that it was a man in pyjamas with a toothbrush in his mouth.

'Good evening Mr Vice-President' Hammond greeted Kinsey who stared at them dumbfounded. A second ago he had been in his bathroom at home getting ready for bed. 'I hope this isn't too inconvenient but I'm afraid we need to have a word' he told him apologetically.

Kinsey pulled the toothbrush out of his mouth, he looked around for a receptacle and failing to spot one eventually spat his toothpaste out on the floor. 'What is the meaning of this?' he demanded to know. 'Where am I?' he asked, looking around.

'You're aboard the Ha'tak _Admiral Kuznetsov_ in orbit above the East Coast of the United States' Hammond told him. 'As to _why_ you're here we have reason to believe that either wittingly or unwittingly you have been passing information onto the enemy.'

'It's the sort of thing you can get shot for you know' O'Neill interjected. This could easily rank as one of the greatest days of his military career, he decided.

'Nonsense' Vice-President Kinsey responded. 'You have no authority to question me like this, let alone abduct me from my home in the middle of the night' he declared.

Agent Barrett coughed. 'I'm afraid to say Sir that in fact we do' he said. 'Although in normal circumstances you would be correct' he concurred, 'President Hayes signed a special order permitting us to carry out this operation' he told him.

Hammond nodded. 'In fact it was his suggestion to do it this way in the middle of the night so that it wouldn't interfere with your day-to-day duties' he added. 'Your Secret Service detail are aware.'

'And what about my wife?' Kinsey retorted. 'You don't think she might wonder why I vanished?'

'She'll be told you decided to go for a walk I believe' Hammond replied.

'There's no way that Henry would have approved this farce' Kinsey stated angrily, he had too much pull with the Senate to provoke like this even if he had never managed to dig up any decent dirt on Hayes.

'This will all go far smoother and be over sooner if you simply choose to cooperate Sir' Hammond told Kinsey. 'I think Lieutenant-Colonel Carter wants you to sit in that chair in front of that device' he said, pointing at it.

'What is that thing?' Kinsey demanded to know.

'It's a Tok'ra za'tarc detector' Carter explained. 'It functions as both a means of verifying possible Goa'uld brainwashing and as an effective lie-detector' she told him. 'We just need you to answer a few questions while you are being monitored by both it and a Sectoid Mind Probe that will scan your surface thoughts.'

'Not a chance' Kinsey told them firmly.

'If that's your final word I'll let the President know you refused to cooperate and he can make the call as to whether we should subject you to a deep-scan with a Psionic Amplifier against your will instead' Hammond responded.

Kinsey's eyes widened. 'You wouldn't' he exclaimed. '_He_ wouldn't.'

'Actually he might if he believes there's any possibility that the man who is one heartbeat away from the Presidency is working for a hostile extraterrestrial power' Daniel suggested. 'Moreover I think it's fair to say that the leaders of the other nations represented on the IOA are going to put a lot of pressure on him to either have you either guaranteed loyal or else fired.'

Kinsey thought about that and then rounded on O'Neill, pointing his toothbrush at him accusingly. 'I'd bet my bottom dollar _you're_ responsible for this' he snarled. The damn archaeologist was right, it wouldn't just be the Russians and the Chinese either, Britain and France would also demand that the US Vice President was screened if there was a reasonable suspicion of alien influence.

'No I just got roped in because Sharp is a Canuck and the President didn't want anyone that wasn't an American involved after he was briefed by X-COM' O'Neill denied the accusation. That doesn't mean I'm not enjoying myself though, he thought to himself.

'Before I agree to this charade I want to hear why you jokers think I'm working for the enemy' Kinsey told them forcefully, still using his toothbrush as a prop.

'Want to field this one Sir or should I?' O'Neill asked Hammond.

'Go right ahead' Hammond replied, giving O'Neill the floor.

O'Neill smiled. 'Well you see it all started when X-COM off-world missions kept getting ambushed' he began, 'and we're talking Sharp and his people running into prepared defences and a hell of a lot more Jaffa than you would normally expect' he said.

'According to all the IOA intelligence reports that have crossed my desk in the last few months Baal and his allies have been raising their game consistently' Kinsey replied. 'What's this got to do with me anyway?' he asked.

'It's those intelligence reports actually' O'Neill replied, trying not to smirk too much, 'the International Oversight Advisory approves all major operations in advance and because all the X-COM personal are already screened regularly for signs of infiltration they decided that if there was a leak it might be coming from the IOA end' he said. 'That's why everyone in the IOA was sent a slightly different set of mission briefings with a different set of planets that were going to be the subject of an X-COM raid.'

'And this is where you tell me that the planets mentioned in the file I was sent all had an ambush laid out ready for us and the planets in the documents given to the other people attached to the IOA didn't' Kinsey finished for him. 'This is obviously just someone trying to set me up' he stated.

'That is of course a possibility' Hammond told him, 'but we've got to be sure.'

Kinsey smirked. 'This is nothing but a vain attempt to discover something you or someone else can use against me' he said. 'All you've got to go on is coincidence and conjecture' he continued. 'In America a man is innocent until he's proven guilty and we have a right to privacy.'

'I seem to remember a certain Senator once saying regarding the subject of the phonetapping of terrorist suspects that; "If you've got nothing to hide you've got nothing to fear" did I get that right?' O'Neill asked sweetly.

'I am very sorry to put you in this situation Mr Vice President' Barrett said. 'But if you agree to answering a few questions while being monitored we can end this unpleasantness very quickly' the NID agent promised.

'Will these questions relate solely to the nonsense that I might be a spy for the goa'uld or some other extraterrestial foe?' Kinsey asked.

'Of course' Hammond told him.

O'Neill sighed, if Hammond hadn't turned up he was planning to slip one in about campaign contributions and maybe another passing question about tax evasion.

'Let's get this over with' Kinsey declared.

'Carter, help the Vice President into the Za'tarc detector could you' O'Neill requested. Please let this all finish with Kinsey facing treason charges, he prayed to himself.

Five minutes later Kinsey was looking smug as he waited for Lieutenant-Colonel Carter to confirm his innocence. Heads were going to roll for this, he vowed.

'Daniel?' O'Neill asked the archaeologist who had been holding a Mind Probe during the interrogation.

'No signs of deceit as far as I could tell with this' Daniel replied, holding up the metallic sphere and offering the instantly desolated O'Neill an apologetic look as he did so.

'The Mind Probe is only a surface scan, it can't tell if someone is lying if they think they're telling the truth' Carter spoke up.

'What are you saying Colonel?' Hammond asked her.

'The detector is showing some indications of goa'uld brainwashing, or at least some kind of interference with the Vice President's mind' Carter announced. 'It's strange though, we'll need to dig deeper to find out' she said. 'I suggest a psionic amplifier.'

'I am not a goa'uld spy!' Kinsey exclaimed.

'Don't get your PJ's in a twist' O'Neill told him, 'sounds like you didn't even know' he said regretfully, they probably couldn't shoot him now.

'How could anyone get to the Vice President?' Barrett asked in confusion. 'When is he even alone for long enough?'

'Just as a suggestion how about at night when we decided to get him' Daniel suggested. 'Could goa'uld mind-control be used when he was asleep?' he asked Carter.

Kinsey suddenly went extremely pale. 'The dreams' he said, 'the woman in my dreams.'

'I guess he's not talking about his wife' O'Neill said. Now it was his turn to look smug, the psi-amp was bound to learn something that would get Kinsey out of their hair forever.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

_Bubastis is the the capital planet of Bastet, long-time ally of Kali and in XSGCOM also in alliance with Amaterasu and of course Baal against the other System Lords and the Tau'ri. __Feigned retreats designed to draw tanks (or in this case Powered Armour) onto hidden gun batteries was a favourite tactic of Rommel. The Jaffa re-invented the wheel here but because they aren't usually so tricky Sharp fell for it. __The bomb-like Plasma Charges dropped by Al'kesh seem, to offer the best chance for the goa'uld to develop an existing weapon into a form of indirect-fire artillery. The Plasma Repeater Cannon is simply a scaled-up version of the Plasma Repeaterused by the Kull (much as the Staff-Cannon is basically a scaled-up Staff-Weapon) and is being used in a role equivalent perhaps to an automatic grenade launcher or a late 19th Century pom-pom gun. __The M119 Howitzer is the US version of the British L118 Light Gun. It's a relatively lightweight artillery piece used to support Marines, Paratroopers and other light infantry and should be too difficult to haul through a stargate even by hand. It has a range of over 17km so you wouldn't need to locate it anywhere near the enemy. The M777 is a larger calibre howitzer but is of a more modern design and considerably lighter than other 155mm artillery pieces._

_M6R-214 was the site of a space battle between the Wraith and Asurans hunting them mentioned in ATL episode 4.06 Tabula Rasa. P3X-447 was a planet where a hiveship was present on the surface mentioned in ATL episode 2.03 Runner._

_Sort of a merge here between elements taken from SG-1 episodes 7.15 Chimera and 8.14 Full Alert. As both US Vice President and IOA member (as well as being affiliated with the NID) Kinsey has a lot of valuable information in his head people would like to get hold of. Agent Barrett cropped up in a few episodes as the good guy of the NID._


	10. Chapter 10

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

_

* * *

_

**Geothermal Drilling Platform – Lantean Ocean – December 2004**

Still dripping seawater onto the deck the Wraith Queen had an expression on her face that was half snarl half sneer as she came upon the lone human who was working on one of the numerous sets of control crystals that she had slid from the corridor wall. It had been centuries since the queen had fed upon the last of her crew, millennia since she had consumed the life-force of a human or a Lantean, and she was going to savour this meal after such a fast.

The human's eyes widened for a moment and she nearly cried out before she realised it was only a wraith, the deathly quiet down here must have been getting to her. 'You nearly gave me a fucking heart attack' she complained, drawing her handgun from its holster and firing it in one smooth motion, a bolt of green plasma blowing the Wraith Queen's left leg off at the knee.

Major Sheppard arrived at the run when he received the call for assistance finding one of the latest batch of personnel transferred from Earth back at work, kneeling by the open panel and inspecting a crystal while an unconscious wraith was bleeding all over the corridor floor nearby. 'What happened?' he asked nonplussed.

'No idea where she came from, thought I'd better leave her alive so after I shot her I pacified her with a few volts from my baton' the scientist told him. 'Didn't pick up any more with my motion scanner when I checked though' she continued reassuringly. 'I was going to put on a tourniquet but it looks like she's already starting to heal' she added, sliding the control crystal back into place.

The Wraith Queen moaned and look like she was struggling to rise again so Sheppard shot her with the zat'nik'tel fitted to his L2-A3. 'Okay I guess your reputation is kinda deserved' he told the woman scientist who looked remarkably calm and unflustered in the circumstances.

Kershaw smiled. 'You requested science personnel with field experience right?' she asked rhetorically. 'I'm really good at this shit' she declared immodestly. 'Ask anyone' she added.

'Well you _did_ come with a letter of recommendation from Brigadier O'Neill' Sheppard replied. 'Of course I also know you used to steal and back-engineer alien technology for the NID and they sentenced you to death for it.'

'My mad skills saved me from death row and I _do_ love the work' Kershaw told him honestly. 'The weird thing is X-COM pay me to do stuff that isn't all that different from what the US Government were going to execute me for' she noted, amused at the irony there.

'Big difference Kershaw' Sheppard responded. 'Unlike your original employer we only screw over the bad guys' he reminded her. 'You're sure there wasn't another one?' he asked. 'I had Zelenka raise emergency forcefields all over the station just in case.'

'Nothing on the motion scanner like I said but without a good psionic with us to try and pick up on them we'll probably want to get limpy there to talk' Kershaw advised then laughed. 'You should have seen the expression on her face when I shot her' she said. 'Priceless I tell you.'

Sheppard nodded. 'The Wraith always have this expectation we'll be afraid of them, totally throws them when we aren't' he observed. 'How the hell did she get way down here anyway?' he wondered.

'Easier to ask than speculate' Kershaw suggested, sliding the panel closed. 'All done here' she told him, getting up. 'Want a hand carrying her?' she offered.

'You can help me drag her' Sheppard replied, 'I'll send someone back for the other part' he added, indicating the lower-leg Kershaw had shot off.

'Any reason why I shouldn't just find somewhere to dump it, like a waste-disposal chute?' Kershaw queried.

Sheppard grinned. 'I've been thinking about shark-fishing off one of the Atlantis Piers and I've been wondering what bait I could use' he told her.

Twenty minutes later after getting the external sensors back on line Zelenka went to find Major Sheppard in what had once been the platform's Medical facility. When he arrived the Wraith Queen they had captured was strapped to a surgical table and had an IV in her arm slowly releasing sedatives into her bloodstream so as to prevent her using her psionic powers to influence the personnel. 'Major I believe I know where she came from' the Czech scientist announced.

'From a Wraith Cruiser that crash-landed out there during the siege of Atlantis' Sheppard responded. 'Already found that out' he said.

'You did?' Zelenka replied in surprise.

Sheppard nodded. 'It took a little while to make her cooperative but I just needed the right motivation' he said, showing Zelenka his side-handled baton. 'A few applications of this baby in it's goa'uld torture setting and it was hard to get her to shut up.'

'You are all going to die' The Wraith Queen hissed.

'Yeah, eventually' Sheppard agreed. 'But not because of anything you did' he replied. 'She tried lying but hadn't counted on us having Mind Probes' he told Zelenka, indicating the X-COM Trooper stood nearby holding one of the metal spheres in his hand. 'She swam here from her ship.'

Zelenka raised his eyebrows. 'Even with the wraith healing ability I am surprised she could do that at this depth' he said. 'We are thousands of metres down and it is nearly a kilometre to her ship' he noted. 'Are there any more?' he asked.

'No, she ate the rest of her crew to stay alive this long' Sheppard told him. 'I'm not sure how willingly they went along with that but you've got to admire her determination to stay alive' he said. 'When we arrived she was taking a nap but we woke her up.'

'Wraith Queens are very strong psionics' Zelenka commented, looking at her with interest. 'We will learn a great deal from her' he said. 'And her crashed ship too' he added.

'Unfortunately she set her cruiser on self-destruct so that might not be possible' Sheppard told him apologetically.

Zelenka suddenly looked extremely concerned. 'Major we are sat on a point in the ocean crust where it is very thin' he said. 'That is the reason the station is here, so as to maximise the amount of geo-thermal energy that could be obtained' he continued. 'The detonation of the power-core of a Wraith Cruiser would be catastrophic' he declared.

'Define catastrophic' Sheppard told him.

'Atlantis may not be far enough away to survive given that we cannot power its shield' Zelenka warned.

Wonderful' Sheppard responded with a sigh. 'Okay how do we stop your ship blowing up?' he asked the queen.

'You cannot' the wraith replied.

Sheppard looked to the trooper with the Mind Probe. 'She's lying' the trooper told him.

'Oh you're going to take some serious training aren't you' Sheppard told the wraith, shaking his head sadly before pressing the baton against her again.

Indescribable pain that made centuries of hunger pale to insignificance once again flooded through the wraith queen, bright light shining from her eyes and mouth as the X-COM copy of the goa'uld torture-stick fitted inside the baton did its job.

Zelenka looked away, he knew it might be necessary, and indeed that the UN had ruled the Geneva Convention and other Human Rights legislation did not apply to hostile extra-terrestrials but it still bothered him to watch the military do things like this. By X-COM standards Sheppard was in fact quite a nice guy, nowhere near as deliberately vicious as many in their ranks, but he was still the product of several years of fighting threats to mankind and his mindset was ruthless when it was called for.

Sheppard removed the baton. 'Let me ask that again' he said. 'How do we stop your ship blowing up?' he wanted to know.

'I will not tell you' the Wraith declared defiantly.

'Yes you will, you'll break long before I get bored doing this' Sheppard told her honestly. 'Why put yourself through it?'

The queen glared at him. 'I will not bow down to my food' she screeched.

'Oh yeah that'll earn you sympathy' the X-COM trooper with the mind-probe responded wryly.

Sheppard leaned over the queen. 'You are not at the top of the food chain' he told her. 'Your species is just an unpleasant disease that this galaxy is infected with and we're the cure' he stated. 'All your arrogance and your deluded superiority complex doesn't impress me' he said. 'You're not scary, you are not powerful, you are nothing but a walking joke' he declared. 'Make that a hopping joke Stumpy' he corrected himself, smirking at her as she directed a look of hatred back at him.

'I will be back at the platform control room if you need me' Zelenka told Sheppard, not wanting to be there for the next round of torture which was surely coming. Perhaps it might have been better if McKay had been on this mission instead of being kept back on Atlantis by Doctor Weir who wanted him to assist Trevoc in starting to assemble the first of the Heavy Ion Cannon the Tollan were shipping through in sections. Many of the other personnel had been drafted into the same project and even some of the Athosians that normally lived on the mainland were helping with the heavy lifting under Teyla's supervision.

When Zelenka arrived back at the control room he found Doctor Coleman still trying to access the platform's database. 'Is there a problem?' he asked her.

Coleman frowned. 'I'm not sure' she replied. 'I accessed all the operating procedures easily enough and I don't think we'll have any trouble getting the platform operational again, or moving it closer to Atlantis where it'll be more useful but when I tried to get into the files which dealt with why the Ancients suddenly stopped the project they're all password protected and encrypted' she told him.

'That is unusual' Zelenka replied. 'I wonder why they would do that?' he asked rhetorically.

'Beats me' Coleman responded. 'We know some of the database on Atlantis was protected with extra layers of security but that seems to be data dealing with the Wraith War and their defence programs' she said. 'This thing was decommissioned before the war, we've already established that, and besides which what's so secret about a glorified mining rig?' she wondered.

'We didn't find any files dealing with the platform on Atlantis which were password protected' Zelenka recalled.

'Yes and that's another odd thing' Coleman replied. 'Some of the data I can't access seems to be attached to files that we've already seen on Atlantis dealing with this station' she told him. 'They were just completely missing on the main Lantean system, almost like they had been erased from there.'

'Very curious indeed' Zelenka agreed.

'I've taken a copy of the encrypted files we can bring back to Atlantis' Coleman told him. 'Maybe Trevoc can get into them?' she suggested. 'He got into a few of the other protected files before, like the classified stuff related to that Defence Satellite.'

'Our Tollan friend does have far better computer hardware and software with him than us mere "Earthers" took with us to Pegasus' Zelenka concurred smiling, 'as he has been known to remind everyone repeatedly' he added. The Tollan were more than a little smug about being the most technologically advanced human society on occasion.

'_Zelenka this is Sheppard_ ' his radio squawked to life. '_You know those Ancient Diving Suits you found earlier, well dust them off, we need to go for a walk outside over to that Wraith Cruiser_.'

Coleman looked at Zelenka. 'Do you think he really appreciates the pressure out there?' she wondered.

'Luckily for him no, but I do' Zelenka replied, an expression of dismay written across his face. 'I hope those ten thousand year old suits don't leak.'

'_The Queen gave us the codes we need to stop her ship exploding_ ' Sheppard announced. '_You might also want to start thinking about how we might be able to salvage it_ ' he added.

Radek Zelenka reached touched his radio earpiece setting it to transmit. 'I'll meet you in the airlock Major' he told him before turning back to Coleman. 'If you can come up with a means to bring a wreck over two kilometres long to the surface while I'm gone you can take the rest of the afternoon off' he told her generously.

'I'll get right on it' Coleman replied, trying to sound serious. 'You know if there's one Wraith ship down here there might be others' she pointed out. 'If we keep the external scanners on the platform running while we drive this thing back towards Atlantis we might find something else' she suggested. 'We'll have to leave a small crew aboard anyway.'

'Is that the sound of volunteering I hear?' Zelenka replied.

'If I'm put in charge of the platform I might be tempted' Coleman told him. 'It's peaceful down here' she said. 'Occasional Wraith hold-outs notwithstanding' she added.

'I will support your request to head this project long-term to McKay and Doctor Weir' Zelenka agreed. 'And I should be going' he said, heading for the door.

Coleman went back to studying the controls of the station, she was certain she could move the platform now. The motors which drove the huge tracks which propelled it along the ocean bed were all still showing as operational and everything else had come back on-line as soon as they arrived, reacting to the presence of the Ancient gene in several of the personnel who had arrived with her in the jumper.

The Ancients certainly built to last, she thought, casting an appreciative look around the control room. There were a few minor faults which would need to be remedied, and a number of systems showing green which might still benefit from a visual inspection just in case, but once they got this thing underneath Atlantis they connect a tether and start sending power to the city. It wasn't a ZPM replacement by any means but it would mean they wouldn't have to have so many naquadah generators running at once to keep Atlantis powered.

There were other technologies here that could be studied and replicated too, Coleman realised. Even those diving suits were eons ahead of anything Earth had produced able to keep you alive in water too deep for a nuclear submarine to go back home. In some ways they reminded her of the first generation suits of Powered Armour, although far clumsier to wear and with less aesthetically clean lines.

Kershaw stuck her head though the door. 'I've finished checking out the drilling controls' she told Coleman. 'I'm going to take ten, get a cup of coffee and then confirm that the auxiliary power-distribution system is okay' she said.

'No problem' Coleman replied, 'if you run in Doctor Abrams on the way can you kick him and tell him he was supposed to be done verifying the backup life-support is still fully functional an hour ago' she requested. 'Tell him to get his ass over to the second airlock to make sure we can dock the other jumper without a hitch when it gets here with the supplies we requested.'

'Will do' Kershaw agreed, heading off to get her coffee. Other than the sensibly small military contingent who had come along there were half a dozen scientists and engineers poking around the place. Because of the sheer size of the platform they could be here a while, hence the call going out to the city for a couple more people and plenty of food and other supplies. Hopefully she herself would be escaping the place with Sheppard before tomorrow but if the major decided he wanted to leave someone behind with the nerds who could speak their language and knew how to use a gun Kershaw knew she might be here a while.

Ever since her release from Military Prison and return to active service Kershaw had been trying to prove that she was the best at this job. She knew that everyone rated little Miss Goody Two-Shoes Carter over her, and more annoyingly that damn midget Hailey too, but Kershaw knew that when it came to quickly getting to grips with new alien technology then she was second-to-none. Maybe here in Pegasus without the other two as competition she could shine? They had smart people here, McKay was arrogant but clearly knew his stuff and the Czech guy on this job Zelenka was pretty sharp too but they couldn't handle themselves in a firefight too like she could. She was an X-COM Combat Tech, there was a galaxy full of alien assholes to fight, extraterrestrial devices to back-engineer and while she was setting herself goals she wouldn't mind getting the Major into the sack either.

After her break Kershaw headed to her next assignment and after kicking Abrams on the way she dropped in on the wraith prisoner. Still with her cup of coffee in her hand she gave the Trooper guarding the thing a nod of acknowledgement and gave the alien a proper look over. 'They really that much stronger than us?' she asked the Trooper.

'Yeah, if we still used bullets they'd take some killing too' the Trooper replied in the affirmative.

Kershaw sipped her coffee and looked into the wraith's eyes. It looked broken somehow, that could have been the drugs they were still feeding it, the after-effects of the wound or just the fact that Sheppard had gotten it to talk. 'You still in there?' Kershaw asked the alien, snapping the fingers of her free hand in front of it.

'You are doomed' the Wraith Queen responded.

'Bitch is like a broken record' the Trooper observed.

'Be fair, it took us years to get the Goa'uld to start accepting that they weren't the Lords of fucking Creation' Kershaw reminded the Trooper, taking another sip of her coffee. 'Cheer up, we might keep some of you alive in zoos' she told the Wraith Queen.

'You are doomed' the wraith repeated, turning her head to one side as if looking towards, or rather through the bulkhead into the lantean ocean beyond.

Some distance off beyond the range of the sensors on the drilling platform a small yellow craft was observing them from a distance. Thanks to the implant installed in their brains the crew could hear the thoughts of the wraith, they needed the device because unlike their creation they were not naturally psionic. 'It is not the Alterans' the leader said. 'It is something new' he added, turning to the pilot of the small submersible. 'Return us to the colony' it ordered. 'Plans must be made and agreed upon, study of this new threat carried out' it continued. 'We have already waited too long for victory to be denied us now' he declared. 'The ancient enemy is no more, the stars are right, _T'leth will rise again_ !'

* * *

**Colorado Springs – Earth – December 2004**

Cassandra Fraiser made sure the baby was properly tucked in and then looked at him as the infant seemed to be almost studying her between yawns. 'You're a very lucky little boy Jacob James' she told him seriously, using his first two names. 'You've got a Mommy who loves you and who is very pretty and very smart' she continued, 'and you've got a Daddy who loves you too and he's very strong and very brave' she said.

Cassie smiled. 'Your Mommy will take care of all your boo-boos because she's a Doctor and when you're older she'll teach you all about how your body works because she's so clever' she continued, the baby now definitely smiling back. 'And you'll never have to worry about monsters hiding under your bed because they're all far too afraid of your Daddy' she told him with a chuckle then paused as she heard someone arrive behind her, 'and one day he'll teach you the best way to smash someone's brains out with an entrenching tool' she said, trying not to laugh.

'Cassie!' Janet said in a disapproving tone from the nursery doorway. The babies room situated between Cassandra's own bedroom and the one shared by Janet and her new husband. Their wedding had been a small-scale affair with only a few guests but it had gone perfectly smoothly apart from Commander Russell Sharp waking up on P2C-257 after his bachelor party without any recollection of how he got there.

'Hi Mom, just putting JJ to bed like you wanted' Cassandra responded, turning around.

'I hope that was just for my benefit and you don't normally say things like that to him' Janet stated. 'Russell might think it was funny but I don't' she said.

'Chill Mom, I knew you were there' Cassandra replied. 'Still felt the need to check I'd managed the incredibly complex task of putting a yawning baby to bed?' she asked.

'I can't help it' Janet defended herself. 'I fuss' she admitted.

'I know, I remember what you were like when first came to live with you' Cassandra replied. 'I'll go see if the Commander wants help making dinner downstairs then' she said, heading for the staircase.

'Why do you call him that? It annoys him you know' Janet told her before she left the nursery.

'You just answered your own question' Cassandra replied, 'if I run into him at the SGC or Area 51 I call him Dad in front of other people because when we're there _that_ annoys him.'

'Why do I detect the dread hand of a certain Brigadier-General in this?' Janet asked suspiciously.

'Wow Mom, we ought to get your psionic strength and skill tested out because that's some awesome supernatural insight you've got working for you there' Cassandra replied, grinning to herself as she disappeared from Janet's view.

Janet sighed then moved to look down at her son who was now drifting off to sleep. 'You've also got a big sister who loves you very much' she told him. 'And one day when she's giving you advice on how to have fun yanking your parent's chains ignore her' she said.

Russell Sharp would never claim that being a good cook was one of his skills but he knew how to make three or generously four dishes well enough for them to be edible and one of them was Sweet and Sour Pork which was what he was currently making. 'Need a hand Commander?' Cassandra asked him, poking her head into the kitchen.

'Not with the food, just lay the table' Sharp replied. 'And don't call me that at home' he told her again. 'It makes me sound like some rigid military disciplinarian that runs his household like he does his unit.'

'Oh come on, we _all_ know that it's Mom who's in charge' Cassie responded, hoping to get a bite out of him.

'So you _do_ listen to what we get up to in the bedroom?' Sharp replied deadpan. 'She's such a stern mistress and the way she cracks that whip...'

'That's a more disturbing mental image than _anything_ I saw in Kinsey's head' Cassandra cut him off before he could go any further.

'You should know by now that when you cross swords with me I fight dirty' Sharp replied. 'I'm still surprised he agreed to you taking a stroll through all his grubby underhanded little secrets' he said.

'Compared to what I've seen in the heads of goa'uld prisoners it was nothing' Cassandra told him. 'He was given a choice of some one else if he wanted.'

'You or Jonas Quinn because no other psionic with enough power had the security clearance' Sharp noted. 'Either a former member of SG-1 or someone that calls O'Neill "Uncle Jack".'

'He called me an alien' Cassandra told Sharp. 'I mean right to my face.'

'You _are_ an alien, at least in the sense you're an extra-terrestrial anyway' Sharp replied, stirring the rice that he had simmering on top of the oven.

'Like I told the Vice-President I prefer to be referred to as Hankan-American' Cassandra responded, crossing her arms and with an indignant expression on her face. 'When people hear "alien" they expect you to be green and have antennae.'

Sharp smirked. 'Or possess strange inhuman powers' he added.

Cassandra narrowed her eyes. 'Read a few minds and be able to move crap around the room with your brain and everyone accuses you of being a freak' she muttered.

'You still need to lay out the cutlery' Sharp reminded her. 'And while you're at it take the wine out of the fridge and open it' he continued. 'It needs to breathe.'

'Can I at least have a glass myself?' Cassandra requested.

'It's alright by me but you'd better get an okay from your mother too' Sharp replied. 'Where is she anyway?' he asked.

'Probably still watching JJ' Cassandra decided.

'She'd better stop doing that before he gets old enough to notice how creepy it is because he'll end up maladjusted otherwise' Sharp said.

'Yeah because when he finds out his big sister is a genetically-engineered telekinetic from another planet and his dad fights alien monsters for a job while pumped up with performance-enhancing drugs _those_ revelations won't warp him _at all_ ' Cassandra responded sarcastically.

'Just as long as he doesn't find out he only exists because an alien gadget accidentally reversed his father's vasectomy at the same time he'll be fine' Sharp said confidently.

Cassandra adopted an evil smile. 'So is keeping this secret from him worth you buying me a car for Christmas?' she asked.

'No but how would you like a trip to Atlantis to see your boyfriend instead?' Sharp replied.

'Atlantis?' Janet exclaimed.

'And now your mother turns up' Sharp said sadly. 'We'll talk over dinner' he said.

Janet was only going through the motions, pushing the food around the plate as the three of them sat in the dining room. 'You can't seriously be expecting me to be okay with you sending my daughter to another galaxy' she said, astonished that the man had ever believed she could be.

'Cassie is an adult and I wouldn't be sending her, I'm asking her to go there's a big difference' Sharp replied, picking up his wineglass.

'It would be bad enough if you wanted her to go on some kind of mission to another planet in this galaxy but Atlantis is a one-way trip' Janet exclaimed.

'Not for much longer' Sharp responded. 'The Tollan are sending a ship to Pegasus soon to deliver a few things we can't strip down to send through the gate' he told her, 'including one of their stargate capacitors' he said. 'Once they've got that thing running we'll be able to bring people back from Atlantis too.'

'I didn't know the Tollan ships were fast enough' Cassandra remarked.

'The Asgard provided them with a few hyperdrives to upgrade their Ghostriders with' Sharp explained. 'They estimate it'll take them a week or so to get there which is faster than we could do it even if the prototype X-304 was completed, which it isn't yet.'

'I thought the Asgard had given us their hyperdrives too' Cassandra queried. From what she had heard the X-304 Class ships now being built to replace the older X-303's like Prometheus would be the first ones equipped with the new drives.

'They did but we can't put as much power into them with out naquadah-reactors so our ships are going to be slower than Tollan ones even if we use the same engines' Sharp explained. 'The Asgard ships are even faster than the Tollan ones because they've got those fancy Neutrino-Ion-Generators which they won't give us the plans for.'

'Enough about goddamn starships!' Janet exclaimed. 'Why do you want to send Cassie halfway across the universe?' she demanded to know.

Sharp shrugged. 'Because we haven't got anyone else who can do the job we want her to' he replied. 'The Atlantis team caught a Wraith Queen and they can't get all the information out of her they think she has because her psionic abilities make an Ethereal look like a retarded gopher' he explained. 'They could use more invasive techniques but it's like when we captured a Sectoid Commander, we don't want to risk damaging it and losing what it might know forever because we might never catch another one.'

'I thought you people could make _anything_ talk' Janet responded.

'We can, we just don't always know the right questions to ask' Sharp told her. 'Supposedly this Wraith was the leader of the damn things ten-thousand years ago when they beat the Ancients so what's inside its head could be invaluable in learning from the perspective of the other side exactly how the Ancients screwed up.'

'So bring it _here_ for Cassie to try and work on it' Janet suggested.

'The Tollan aren't going yet, it could be weeks before they're on Atlantis and the stargate capacitor is operational at the other end' Sharp explained. 'If Cassandra agrees to go, and it's entirely her choice, she could be there in days.'

'I'll go tomorrow' Cassandra announced. 'I just need to pack a few things' she said.

'You can't go tomorrow, the capacitor on our side hasn't recharged yet' Sharp reminded her.

'Oh yeah' Cassandra realised. On the plus side that meant she could go buy her boyfriend Jake a present and deliver it personally, she thought to herself. The long-distance relationship by emails transmitted through the weekly wormhole to Pegasus wasn't a good substitute for spending time with him in person.

'Isn't it dangerous, I mean with the wraith?' Janet asked.

Sharp shook his head. 'Atlantis is perfectly secure' he told her.

'No I meant if this Wraith Queen is so powerful' Janet said, concerned at the notion of her little girl getting her mind scrambled by some vicious alien monster.

'It's not in Cassie's league in terms of psionics' Sharp replied. 'I wouldn't want to put a Langaran up against it, otherwise I would have talked to their government about borrowing Jonas again for a while, but we've already determined that Cassandra will rip its ass' he said. 'Mentally I mean.'

'Oh yeah, I'm bad' Cassie declared, trying to sound tough.

'I don't like this one bit' Janet stated.

'And I'm sure I'm going to be made to suffer for that but it's the right thing to do' Sharp replied.

'I want to help' Cassandra said. 'These fucking things _eat_ people' she pointed out.

'Watch your language at the dinner table young lady' Sharp rebuked her.

'Sorry' Cassandra apologised. 'But if I can help stop these things I want to' she said. 'This is important to me Mom' she told Janet seriously. 'I'm the only Hankan left alive because to things like the Goa'uld and the Wraith we're not people, we're just slaves to be discarded when we're not useful any more or even just food' she continued. 'There are babies just like JJ growing up in Pegasus who will end up as some alien's lunch if we don't do something about it, think about that.'

Sharp smiled. 'I should get you to write my next briefing report to the IOA' he told Cassandra. 'There is one thing you might not have considered though' he told her. 'You won't be here for Christmas if you go' he noted.

'That's okay, I can wait for my new car' Cassandra replied.

'I'm not getting you a car' Sharp responded flatly.

'Oh I'll buy it myself seeing as how if I'm going to be officially working for X-COM and on a mission I'll be getting paid at least what they give you' Cassandra said smugly. 'So if I'm gone a month that'll be twenty thousand dollars tax-free right?' she checked. 'No wait, shouldn't I be a civilian specialist like Daniel making that thirty-thousand?' she asked sweetly.

'You really shouldn't have told her she was the only one who could do it' Janet told him. 'Market forces.'

'Oh the paperwork here is going to be a bitch' Sharp moaned, imagining what Dwoskin the X-COM Finance Director would say when he found that he was signing an approval form giving that much money to a member of the ranking Commanders new family.

'Language' Cassie told him, 'we're at the dinner table' she said, wagging her finger at him in disapproval.

* * *

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – December 2004**

Approaching the leader of the Terrans as she ate her lunch alone in the canteen Teyla was not entirely sure how she should phrase her reservations to Doctor Weir. She soon decided that trying to do so diplomatically might be more appropriate than questioning her sanity and put on a smile as she placed her own tray of food next to Weirs and sat down beside her at the table. 'Elizabeth' she began, trying to sound as reasonable as she could. 'When you told me your people were sending a specialist to deal with the Wraith Queen I was expecting...' she trailed off. 'Someone different' she said eventually, indicating the newcomer to Atlantis who was queuing up to collect her own lunch.

Weir smiled. 'Yes I thought you looked a little surprised when it was a teenage girl who arrived with the last sections of the Tollan weapon' she responded. Picking up a small plastic spoon and starting on her jello dessert.

'You cannot seriously expect that this child will be able to defeat any Wraith, let alone a Queen such as this in a test of wills?' Teyla asked. 'I know the Terrans have made great study of what you call Psionics, that which my people thought Wraith magics, but the ability of even lesser of their breed to play tricks with your mind, or force you to do their bidding, is truly terrible' the Athosian warned.

'Your Tava Beans are getting cold' Elizabeth replied then nodded. 'I can see why you might need some reassurance in the circumstances' she conceded. 'You're probably thinking we've become overconfident to the point of hubris regarding the Wraith am I right?'

'That had crossed my mind' Teyla admitted. 'You have slain many Wraith it is true but so did the Ancestors and ultimately they were themselves defeated' she said. 'I and others who were born and raised under the shadow of the Hiveships do not take the threat they represent so lightly.'

'Very well for the sake of your peace of mind perhaps I can get Cassandra to dispel and concerns you have regarding her own abilities' Weir said, looking up and seeing the girl heading towards a table mostly occupied by X-COM Troopers including Captain Gaston. 'Cassandra can you come here for a minute, this won't take long' she called out.

Cassie heard Weir's voice and grumbled to herself for a couple of seconds before complying. This had really only better take a little while because she wanted to get back to Jake. After months apart she wanted to enjoy every moment they had together before she went home.

'Cassandra this is Teyla, our chief Athosian Scout' Weir introduced the local. 'Teyla this is Cassandra Fraiser' she said. 'It is still Fraiser?' she queried.

'It's still Fraiser but I might change it' Cassandra replied, Commander Sharp had suggested formally adopting her if she wanted to be but she hadn't decided yet.

'The jewellery you wear on your head is very pretty' Teyla told the girl, trying to be friendly. The Terran was wearing what seemed to be some kind of silvery tiara on her head, her long hair threaded through to hold it in place.

'It's not as ugly as it used to be' Cassandra replied. 'It's not really jewellery though' she told Teyla. 'What did you call me over for Doctor Weir?' she asked, impatiently.

'Teyla is concerned that you might not be able to handle the Wraith Queen' Weir explained. 'I thought you might be able to reassure her' she said.

'Oh' Cassandra replied comprehendingly. 'Yeah you want a demo I guess' she realised. 'Can I get a volunteer?' she asked loudly.

For some reason every Terran in the room suddenly seemed to shrink down, stopped talking and took an uncommon interest in their meal.

'A volunteer for what?' Teyla queried, wondering why they had all reacted that way.

'Might as well be you then I suppose' Cassandra told Teyla. 'Could you stand up' she requested, putting her tray down for a moment and reaching down to what seemed to be a device clipped to her belt. 'Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you or trawl through your memories' she said.

'Hurt me?' Teyla repeated curiously, getting up and standing in front of the girl.

'Stand on one leg' Cassandra asked politely and completely against her will Teyla immediately complied, lifting her left leg as she felt a crushing force grab hold of her mind totally overwhelming her ability to resist. 'She's pretty strong' Cassandra observed to Weir, 'with some training she might be as good as a skilled Langaran' she said.

'Teyla doesn't have the Ancient Gene' Weir replied, surprised.

'Well she's got _something_ ' Cassandra told her. 'You said she was Athosian right?' she asked.

'Yes' Weir confirmed.

'Cool' Cassandra responded before addressing Teyla again. 'This is a usually a classic crowd pleaser' she remarked. 'Sing your favourite Athosian Folk Song, assuming you have one' she ordered.

Teyla had always been told she had a very good singing voice and she usually liked to use it but this was not one of those times. She started to sing a mournful tune unable not to and was nearly on the second verse when she felt the weight lift from her mind was able to stop singing and put her leg down. 'That was... horrible' she exclaimed, directing an appalled look at Cassandra. 'How did you do that?'

'A little genetic tampering, a little selective breeding and some high-tech' Cassandra explained. 'Oh yeah, always end with the big finish' she said, raising her arm and pointing it at Teyla, hand open like her fingers were about to grab hold of something. 'Don't worry I won't drop you' she said.

Teyla felt herself lift off the floor as the young woman raised her hand. 'What is this?' she gasped.

'Telekinesis' Cassanda replied, 'I'm much better at this than I used to be' she said. 'They say the more I practise the more neural connections form in my brain to enhance the ability' she explained. 'I stopped a bullet in flight once as an experiment but that was more more luck and good timing than anything else' she admitted, raising Teyla her own height off the floor before gently lowering her again. 'Thank you, you've been a wonderful audience, I'm here all week' Cassandra told the room as she released the Athosian, taking a bow to laughter and applause.

'Are there other Terran's like her?' Teyla exclaimed.

'I'm not from originally from Earth' Cassandra told her. 'I'm from another planet in our galaxy called Hanka, I was adopted by a woman from Earth after my parents died' she explained. 'If that's all I'd like to eat my lunch now' she asked Weir.

'That's all, thank you Cassandra' Weir replied, the girl retrieving her tray.

Teyla took her seat again, her Tava beans no longer holding any interest as she stared blankly into space. 'I did not think that the humans of your galaxy could surprise me any more but now I wonder what else you can bring to the fight against the Wraith and if I should pity more than fear them' she said.

In the block of cells constructed in one of the other towers to be the cities alien containment facility the Wraith Queen assumed it was merely the innate stupidity of the race holding her captive that had them reduce the dose of whatever chemical it was they were feeding her through the tube inserted in her arm. As the effects of the drug lessened her mind started to clear and her strength slowly returned to the point where she thought she could break the straps binding her. She began to link to the other Wraith imprisoned nearby and was pleased to learn that she was by far the most powerful and they would serve her once she freed herself and then released them too.

Thanks to her healing ability her wounds were already being repaired but to grow a replacement for what that human had shot off with that powerful bolt of green energy would require two or three feedings. Fortunately there was plenty of prey in the Lantean City they had transported her to and she could now start to sense them, soon being powerful enough again to control them.

After so long at the bottom of the ocean remaining patiently for a few more hours while she recovered completely was no task and the Wraith Queen whiled away the times imagining what she would do to the female human who had shot her. Opening her mind to deeper contact with the other Wraith prisoners she quickly learned of what had happened during her long isolation and abandonment and found out that these humans had only recently come to these stars from another place. They were not like the humans she remembered, nor were they like the latter-day humans of this galaxy for that matter, they were clearly more formidable and crushing them would surely help her re-establish her right to rule.

When she felt she was as strong physically and mentally as she could be the Queen broke the straps securing her to the bed they had placed her on inside the cell and then tore out the IV tube connected to her arm. '_I am free_ ' she told the other Wraith with her mind. '_I will escape this cell and free you also_ ' she continued. 'And I... will always love you' she sang out loud. 'I... will always love you, ooh' she continued, trying to stop and failing.

The door to her cell opened and the Wraith found standing there was the male human soldier she recognised from the Drilling Platform plus a young female with long hair. 'She's no Whitney Houston' the male observed.

'Yeah' the female agreed. 'Okay if you don't like the singing how about this?' she asked.

The Wraith Queen felt a mind more powerful than she had ever felt before force her right arm up and then she slapped herself hard across the face.

'Now that I like' the male said appreciatively, nodding his approval.

'Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself' the female said grinning. Each time the three word phrase proceeded by the Queen slapping herself again hard enough to rock her head to the side.

'Okay that's enough Cassandra' the male ordered. 'Right Vampira' he addressed the Queen. 'Time for talkies' he told her seriously.

'This is not _possible_ ' the Wraith Queen declared in disbelief as she felt the mind of the young human female "Cassandra" start to probe into her psyche. With great effort she eventually managed to close her memories off and prevented the human getting any deeper, this being a skill she had mastered long ago thanks to duelling mentally for dominance with other Queens.

'She's blocking me' Cassandra said in surprise. 'I need to break her focus somehow' she told Sheppard with a frown before smirking. 'Oh this should work' she decided. 'Stop feeding on yourself' she told the Wraith.

'NO!' the Wraith Queen cried out in horror as she slammed her right hand against her own chest and began to feed on her own life-force.

Sheppard grimaced as the Wraith screamed, it's face contorted in agony. 'Oh I bet that smarts a bit' he commented as the Wraith involuntarily tortured itself.

'This could take a while, you couldn't go get me a Dr Pepper could you?' Cassandra asked Sheppard, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

'I'd better stay here' Sheppard replied.

'Okay but I get cranky without my sugar fix' Cassandra warned him. 'That's enough' she told the Wraith, allowing it to stop feeding. 'Just for the record I'm only standing here alive because someone tortured another evil alien bitch into submission a few years back so in case you were thinking I might show mercy, dream on' she told it. 'I've got _no_ serious moral qualms about hurting you this way if I think it'll save human lives which I do' she informed the Queen honestly. 'So how about we start with how you people beat the Ancients' she began professionally, crossing her arms in a businesslike fashion.

In the Atlantis Control Room Colonel Vaselov was standingon the steps in front of the stargate, looking at it as he leaned against his stick. He didn't need it any more, months of short stays in a sarcophagus had finally returned him to his correct physical age, but he had become attached to the thing and he thought it gave him a little character. 'I thought our survey team to M3R-428 was due back ten minutes ago?' he asked Doctor Grodin who was sat at the command console above.

'We received a request to extend the mission in order to evaluate possible mineral deposits' Grodin replied.

'Trinium ore?' Vaselov queried, obtaining new supplies of the metal was a high priority now they were considering setting up heavy manufacturing on the mainland.

'Beryllium' Grodin told him. 'It's very useful in producing specialist alloys' he said. 'If the deposits are rich enough it might be worth establishing a small automated mining operation.'

Vaselov threw up his stick and caught it, getting his dexterity and reaction times back was wonderful since above all else it meant he could fly an F-302 properly again. 'Any news from the interrogation of the Wraith Queen yet?' he inquired.

'Not yet Colonel' Grodin told him.

The duty technician, a Canadian Sergeant touched his earpiece. 'We're receiving an urgent call for assistance from the Athosian settlement on the mainland' he said. 'They claim to be under attack.'

'Get a combat team to the transmission room' Vaselov ordered immediately, using their Aschen supplied transporters they could have troops there in minutes. 'Scramble interceptors, initiate city defence protocols and call all military personnel to duty' he said. 'Insert the ZPM and activate the city shield if we come under heavy attack' he added. The nearly depleted Zero Point Module they had obtained could only power the shield for a brief time but while it last Atlantis was invulnerable.

'How the hell did the Wraith get here?' Grodin asked. 'They don't have cloaking technology.'

'They say it's not the Wraith' the Sergeant said, 'they say it's... they say it's monsters, monsters coming from the ocean' he said confused. 'The Athosians live near the shore, they go fishing.'

'Monsters?' Grodin repeated.

The Sergeant blinked. 'Whatever they are they're taking people' he said. 'Oh shit, they're taking the kids we put there' he said.

'Our first F-302 is lifting off from Pier 3' another technician reported. 'At full speed it's only minutes to the mainland' he said. 'The ZPM has been inserted, ready to activate shield when requested.'

Elizabeth Weir came running in. 'What's happening?' she asked.

'The people on the mainland are under attack' Grodin told her.

'Wraith?' Weir responded. 'How?' she asked.

'They say it's not Wraith' the Sergeant told her. 'Whoever, _whatever_ it is, the person yelling at me on the radio is saying they're leaving, carrying prisoners with them.'

'What's happening with the computers?' Weir asked. She had just noticed the laptops connected to the Lantean database were now showing page after page of text in Ancient script, scrolling fast.

'I don't know, I think it started just now when we plugged in the ZPM' Grodin replied. 'A number of automated systems came on line' he said. 'The holographic projection room just activated' he announced as a blinking display caught his attention 'There's an image playing.'

Weir turned and ran towards the chamber where you could directly talk to the cities database, arriving there with Vaselov who had sprinted to join her.

As they entered a Lantean they had never seen before stood on the pedestal where the holograms were projected. 'Warning' it said. 'Sensors are detecting Aquatoid forces' it stated. 'Danger Drone stocks almost depleted, restock magazines immediately' it said.

'Who are you?' Weir asked.

'This is a projection of the form of General Tristac Hippaforalkus' the projection responded. 'Aquatoid forces are present within sensor range, take immediate steps to defend this facility.'

Weir looked to Vaselov who looked as mystified as she did. 'What are Aquatoids?' she asked.

The hologram froze for a moment. 'That information is classified' it replied then froze again. 'Emergency override' it said. 'The Aquatoids are the enemy' it announced. 'Recommend immediate mobilisation of all Alteran military units.'

'Alteran?' Weir repeated in confusion. 'We thought the Ancients had stopped calling themselves that millions of years before Atlantis even left Earth?'

Vaselov frowned. 'When was the last military confrontation between the Alterans and the Aquatoids?' he asked the hologram, assuming reasonably that these things were some alien race the Ancients had fought before, perhaps a _very_ long time ago.

'During the invasion of Terra' the hologram answered him.

'These things attacked Earth?' Weir asked in surprise, 'I mean Terra' she corrected herself, wondering how long ago that had been.

'No, there is no record in my files of an Aquatoid attempt to re-take their homeworld after the Alteran invasion and conquest of Terra ended the Great War' the hologram replied. 'Warning, Aquatoid forces detected, prepare to defend this facility' it declared.

Vaselov blinked. 'As they say in your country Elizabeth' he began slowly, turning to Weir. 'What the _fuck_ ?' he exclaimed.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

___When they went to the Lantean Mobile Drilling Platform in SGA episode 3.18 Submersion they encountered a Wraith Queen who was aboard a Cruiser downed during the war with the Ancients. In the show the Queen used her powers to take over Teyla but she wasn't on the mission this time and the regular humans are less easily controlled. __Former rogue NID agent Kershaw is back in the story. I figured the Atlantis team could do with a science-type that was a little more inclined to get stuck into the action and in some ways she is the anti-Carter (more amenable to the X-COM way). In the show the Wraith Queen swam to the platform and in one scene ambushed a scientist working on one of the systems. Unlike the unfortunate scientist there however Kershaw isn't going to panic and get eaten she's going to just shoot the alien! Thanks to rather more field experience (the Queen isn't used to humans doing that kind of thing and was caught off-guard by the unpleasant turn of events). Coleman is a scientist on the Atlantis mission who was on the original team that located the platform and later ran it. __One of the things they found on the platform were Ancient Diving Suits which enabled Sheppard and McKay to make the trip to the Wraith Cruiser without getting killed by the water pressure of the ocean at that depth. ____It's said in the show that they don't actually know why the Ancients shut down the Drilling Platform, it definitely worked. Here it's because they found something down there which they didn't like one bit..._

___It's time they got some use out of all the time and equipment they invested in turning Cassie into the most powerful being that ever put on a custom Psionic-Amplifier!_ _It's mentioned in XSGCOM: Goa'uld Defence that they don't immediately go for a full-on Mind-Raping of the Sectoid Commander they captured because they might break it, preferring to try less extreme methods first. If you're not sure you'll ever get another 10,000 year old Wraith Queen you might be reluctant to break out the electrodes before exhausting other means of extracting information. __Regarding the speed of ships, without a ZPM an X-304 Class ship takes 18 days to get to Pegasus but only needs four days for the journey with one. It's logical to assume that the normal powerplant just can't run the engines up to full speed. The Tollan have better power-generation than Earth but their "Ghostrider" ships still haven't got the wattage to match several Asgard NIG's (or a ZPM) so I've pegged them (arbitrarily really) at seven to eight days to Pegasus now they have Asgard Hyperdrives._

_____The Aquatoids are the bad-guys in X-COM: Terror from the Deep. They're a semi-aquatic race who specialise in organic-based technology, are tens of millions of years old as a species and have been sleeping (in time-dilation stasis) for much of that time. I'm playing with X-COM canon in that in the game they were not originally from Earth but I thought that having them the original owners of Terra before the Alterans defeated them in a war which took place a very, very long time ago was a nice touch. The Alterans are not originally from the Milky Way of course and although it became their capital world later Earth was not their first colony either. __More explanations to come in later chapters. Suffice it to say that the Aquatoids hate the Ancients, they hate their children, they want us all to die and they want their damn planet back!_  



	11. Chapter 11

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

_

* * *

  
_

**United Nations Building – New York – January 2005**

Major Paul Davis noted that Vice-President Kinsey was again conspicuous by his absence. Although still officially the most important American affiliated to the International Oversight Advisory it was hardly surprising that the US was instead represented by bureaucrat Richard Woolsey given that the other powers were still wary of Robert Kinsey still being under alien influence of some kind.

Although this was not the first time Davis had been drafted in to make a report to the IOA on behalf of Stargate Command he hadn't before been accompanied by Daniel Jackson but he was very grateful the good doctor was along for this one. There were aspects of this situation which the Major felt unqualified in the extreme to talk about, military or even political matters Davis could handle, history on this kind of scale was simply outside his field of expertise.

Russell Chapman the UK Representative checked the notes he had been scribbling down on the jotter in front of him. 'And you say by the time our soldiers arrived on the scene these aliens had already withdrawn?' he checked.

'Yes Sir' Davis confirmed. 'We believe they returned to their submersible craft and dived before either our Troopers or an F-302 Interceptor could get there' he said.

'Taking thirteen prisoners with them?' Shen Xiaoyi, the IOA member for the Peoples Republic of China queried.

'Yes Ma'am' Davis replied. 'Two Athosian civilians and eleven of the children we relocated from M7G-677' he told her.

'Why so many children?' Chapman asked. 'Were they singled out?'

'We don't think so' Davis responded. 'The Athosians lived their entire lives in fear of the Wraith and became very well adapted to survive sudden hostile attacks' he continued. 'In short they were more likely to run and hide immediately whereas the children of 677 were not so well conditioned' he said. 'A number of the Athosians did however try and fight in order to save the kids once they realised they were being abducted.'

'With what result?' Woolsey queried.

Major Davis adopted a grave expression. 'Those who tried to resist were slaughtered' he replied flatly.

'I see' Woolsey replied. 'Did examination of the bodies reveal anything of the nature of the weapons of our latest alien foe?' he asked.

'Their internal organs were in some cases practically liquefied by what we believe to be sonic devices' Davis told him. 'The injuries were such that in the majority of cases the Atlantis medical staff were unable to resurrect the fatalities in a sarcophagus' he said. 'There is no actual penetration as such but, to quote the report from Pegasus, a headshot "instantly turns your brains to mush".'

'Charming' Chapman responded sardonically before frowning. 'And we haven't heard anything from the things since?' he asked.

'No Sir' Davis replied. 'It's possible that the aliens are interrogating the prisoners for information as to Atlantis and the galactic situation generally' he theorised. 'They have been out of the loop for a very long time' he noted.

Jean LaPierre leaned forward in his chair. 'I find it hard to believe that we have never before heard of these "Aquatoid" creatures if they were considered such a threat by the Ancients' he remarked. 'There have not even been any rumours of them as far as I know' he said.

Davis smiled, that wasn't actually true but Doctor Jackson could field this one he decided. 'Do you want to cover this?' he asked the archaeologist.

'Yes' Daniel replied. 'As for why we've never heard of the Aquatoids before that's simply a result of just how long ago the war between them and the Ancients took place' he said. 'We're talking about tens of millions of years ago' he continued, 'long before Atlantis was constructed or even we think the stargate network existed in its modern form' he said then pursed his lips. 'Perhaps I can give you all an idea of just how far back we're talking' he suggested. 'Now I'm sure you are all aware that the Himalayan Mountains are the result of two tectonic plates colliding and rock been gradually pushed up between them' he said, pushing his hands together to mimic the action. 'Now the process of the range being formed is extremely gradual, we're talking less than half an inch of uplift a year at most, but given enough time you end up with mountains that are miles high.'

'I'm sorry to interrupt Doctor Jackson but I'm not certain where you're going with this' Woolsey told him.

Jackson smiled. 'Where I'm going with this is that when the war between the Aquatoids and the Alterans took place Mount Everest was something you might _trip_ over' he told them. 'It's not just a long time ago historically, it's a long time ago geologically' he said. 'The Ancients leaving this galaxy to colonise Pegasus is practically current affairs by comparison, the Aquatoids may have even been contemporaries of the dinosaurs, they were certainly on Earth before the Ancients and _they_were established here over fifty-million years ago.'

Chapman blinked. 'My God it staggers the mind' he admitted.

'And the Aquatoids are originally a terrestrial species?' Shen Xiaoyi asked, intrigued.

'Yes according to what we've managed to glean from the Atlantis database but I doubt they would appreciate the use of that term' Daniel replied. 'Terra, or Earth is the name the Alterans gave this world when they conquered it' he explained. 'Before that it was called Water by its prior owners, that being "Aqua" in Alteran.'

'One way to mark a victory' Woolsey observed.

'Yes and of course the Ancients also changed their capital world from Dakara to Terra' Jackson pointed out. 'That may have also been a form of counting coup.'

'Do we know the reasons for the war and perhaps more importantly how the Ancients won it given that these Aquatoids have already provoked hostilities against us?' Shen Xiaoyi asked Daniel.

'We haven't got a complete understanding but from what we've been able to gather the Aquatoids were already starting to spread through the Milky Way and had established colonies in a large number of star-systems when the Alterans began to expand out from Dakara themselves, planting the first generation of stargates to tie together a growing domain' Daniel replied. 'Unfortunately neither power seemingly had yet developed the kind of advanced terraforming technologies the Ancients used later to create so many Earth-like planets so they were competing for a limited number of inhabitable worlds.'

'I'm going to assume that one day they both wanted the same planet and neither one would back down?' Chapman reasoned.

Daniel nodded. 'To some extent that does seem to be exactly what happened but at least according to the Alteran records the Aquatoids didn't even _try_ to negotiate' he said. 'They found a recently established Alteran colony on a world they intended to claim for themselves and simply destroyed it.'

'So not a race of pacifists then' Chapman wryly commented.

'Not really' Daniel agreed. 'The Alterans were not as aggressive militarily but eventually began to fight back' he said. 'Initially we're just talking an occasional border clash as the two galactic powers felt each other out but after a few years it escalated to full-scale war' he told them. 'The conflict lasted centuries and became increasingly bitter as a result, both having plenty of resources to devote to the war' he continued, 'eventually however the Alterans gained the upper hand and began to take one Aquatoid world after another.'

'More advanced weapons?' Woolsey suggested.

'That was one reason for the final Alteran victory' Daniel confirmed. 'The Aquatoids were a semi-aquatic, amphibious species, most of their cities, factories and defence-installations were underwater making them tricky to attack with the directed-energy weapons the Alterans utilised but eventually the Ancients developed a highly advanced guided missile which worked just as well underwater as it did in the atmosphere and they produced them in vast numbers.'

'The drones' Shen Xiaoyi realised, they even looked a lot like a sea-creature she decided.

'First Generation Drones we think' Davis interjected. 'They continued to improve the design later so they could operate in space and penetrate shields too but they kept the original shape which was clearly optimised for aquatic use' he said. 'It probably says how much the war impacted on the Ancients that even millions of years later they still stuck to using weapons that could be used against the Aquatoids if they ever turned up again.'

'The Alterans had other advantages too' Daniel noted. 'Their colonies were connected by the new stargate network and they developed the first hyperdrive sometime during the war.'

Chapman looked puzzled. 'I'm sorry but if the hyperdrive was invented during the war then how exactly were they getting around before that?' he asked reasonably.

'Prior to the hyperdrive both the Alterans and the Aquatoids used a different means of faster-than-light travel which was considerably slower as far as we can determine' Daniel explained. 'We've no idea how it worked as yet, and to be honest practically all we _do_ know is that it wasn't as fast as hyperdrive' he admitted, 'although it was supposedly more efficient' he said.

'More efficient you say?' Chapman queried.

'Measured in terms of how much energy you had to put in to travel a given distance' Daniel explained. 'In fact it seems that the Alterans continued to use that type of stardrive for extremely long-range missions where speed wasn't as important as how far you could get between refuelling' he said.

'Their new hyperdrive meant that the Ancients had a massive strategic advantage over their enemy' Davis told the IOA members. 'We've witnessed a similar situation recently ourselves during the war between Apophis and the other System Lords' he reminded them. 'The Aquatoids were pushed firmly on the defensive and stayed that way right up until their final defeat.'

'They never managed to copy the hyperdrive themselves?' Shen Xiaoyi asked curiously.

'I'm sure they tried but Sam Carter suggested to me they may have been at an inherent disadvantage because their culture was seemingly more based around organically-based technology rather than the hard physics of the Alterans' Daniel told her. 'We know that the Wraith have slower ships with less endurance than ours because the radiation a vessel is bombarded with while travelling in subspace slowly kills their ships and they have to break up long journeys with pauses to let their vessels recover from the damage' he said. 'If the Aquatoids suffered even more from that problem then that might have meant they couldn't just slap a back-engineered copy of a hyperdrive on one of their existing warships, they would need to establish an entirely new industrial base.'

'Not easy to do when you're losing a war and you're on a downward spiral towards defeat' Major Davis noted. 'The Aquatoids were also at a serious disadvantage when it came to intelligence gathering which made their situation even worse.'

Woolsey was making notes. 'How so?' he asked, looking up from his notebook.

'Even at that stage in their history the Alterans were starting to show signs of psionic potential' Daniel replied. 'It was only present in a very tiny minority, and even the strongest of that tiny minority might have been at the level of the modern Langarans but if you have telepaths you can use to interrogate prisoners, or even deploy in a combat situation when required by circumstance, and the other side doesn't then you're not likely to get caught by surprise very often.'

'With that advantage in itself I am surprised that the war lasted centuries' LaPierre interjected.

Major Davis shrugged. 'The Aquatoids were far better soldiers than the Ancients' he said. 'In ground combat, and in particular any fighting that took place underwater, in a fair fight they were still regularly defeating Alteran forces several times their number right up until they lost the war' he told them. 'Whenever possible the Ancients would just salvo vast numbers of drones at them from a distance, they _hated_ fighting close-in because according to the files we've studied the Aquatoids quite frankly scared the shit out of them.'

'That was likely due in large part to what the Aquatoids did to any Alterans they captured alive' Daniel commented, trying not to grimace too much.

'Which was?' Chapman inquired.

'In some cases they brainwashed them, grafted on their biotechnology and used them as cannon-fodder and in others they removed the brain completely and inserted it into a war-machine to act as the control computer' Daniel told him. 'The Aquatoids saw other races, even other _sapient_ races as just another resource' he said. 'In fact we now suspect that several of the species that exist in the Milky Way today, including the Ohnes and the Gadmeer are descended from races which the Aquatoids encountered and controlled.'

'So should we assume that the Ancients, Alterans or whatever it is we're going to call them wiped out the Aquatoids themselves entirely?' Russell Chapman asked. 'Or at least they thought they had.'

Daniel and Davis looked at each other. 'No and that may prove to be an issue with another ally' Daniel replied carefully. 'You see after winning the war the Alterans decided that they couldn't bring themselves to commit outright genocide so instead they took steps to ensure that their most dangerous former enemies were... fixed' he said.

'Fixed?' LaPierre repeated quizzically.

'Yes, to give one example the most aggressive of the subject races of the Aquatoids were the reptilian Tasoth' Daniel told him. 'We think they eventually became the Gadmeer.'

'But the Gadmeer are arch pacifists' Shen Xiaoyi pointed out.

'They likely are _now_ because the Ancients used genetic engineering to remove their hyper-aggressive traits' Daniel explained. 'These revelations may conceivably cause the Gadmeer to look on themselves in a new light but not perhaps as much as another species we're well acquainted with' he added cryptically.

'Go on Doctor Jackson' Woolsey requested.

'The Aquatoids experimented on themselves as well as other races' Daniel told them. 'During the last throes of the fighting the Alterans discovered a new sub-species of Aquatoid which had been created to operate more efficiently on land, capturing a large number aboard a transport vessel which was transporting an army of them in stasis' he said. 'The Alterans considered simply dumping them out of an airlock I'm sure but in the end they opted instead to mindwipe them and strand them on a distant planet where they couldn't cause any trouble' he continued. 'A few survived, despite being basically abandoned without resources and with complete amnesia eventually they evolved into a much nicer race than their forebears.'

'It's the Asgard' Major Davis told the IOA representatives. 'Our most important ally is descended from the mortal enemy of our own progenitor species' he said resulting in several sets of raised eyebrows.

'You've got to appreciate the irony at least' Daniel observed. 'Our problem right now however is that Thor's extremely crotchety Great, Great ad infinitum Grandparents are back and they probably want the damn kids from next door to get the hell off their lawn.'

* * *

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – January 2005**

'It was my fault' Weir stated again, sitting on the edge of her bed with Colonel Vaselov sat on a chair facing her. 'I know that logically there's no way I could have known what was going to happen but those children wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for me' she said sorrowfully.

'The relocation of the population of M7G-677 to the Lantea was a military recommendation' Vaselov replied. 'As you say you could not have known what would happen and in any case it was ultimately my responsibility since I advocated the removal of the children to a new home and the requisitioning of the ZPM which had been protecting them' he said.

'I'm in charge' Weir told him. 'The final decision was mine and the Buck Stops Here' she said. 'They must hate me' she decided.

'Perhaps' Vaselov conceded, 'though they are starting to be less trouble than they were when we first returned them to Atlantis for protection so in a few more weeks you might be able to try apologising to them once more without getting more things thrown at you' he suggested. 'Major Sheppard continues to be impressed at your reflexes.'

'I may have dodged the dinner tray that was hurled at me but I still had to clean the tuttle-root soup off my uniform' Weir replied, forcing a smile. 'I guess it's not very nice for the Troopers we have keeping the children confined in the section we put them in?'

'Once I had the guards put in Powered Armour the increased intimidation factor helped but the soldiers assigned to that duty do not enjoy it' Vaselov told her. 'Doctor Heightmeyer has been able to calm them down and has started counselling of those most traumatised by the Aquatoid attack and the abduction of their friends.'

'I should talk to her' Weir decided, how come I don't know that, she wondered? Have I really become that detached?

'Yes you should' Vaselov agreed. 'Hiding in this room feeling guilty is not productive and it is not making you feel better either' he informed her bluntly.

Weir glared at him. 'I'm not hiding' she replied sternly. 'I'm still doing my job' she continued defensively knowing that she was protesting a little too much.

'As a leader you are duty bound to do far more than merely go through the motions' Vaselov told her. 'You are as much a figurehead as you are a manager and administrator and people are starting to complain about it' he continued. 'I have tried my best to take some of the weight off your shoulders, transferring some of my own duties to Major Sheppard in the interim but you need to woman up' he declared.

'I wouldn't have let you in if I'd known I was going to be lectured' Weir responded with a scowl. 'And where the hell did you get the phrase "Woman Up" from?' she couldn't help but ask.

Vaselov frowned. 'I heard Captain Gaston tell a nervous scientist due to go through the stargate on a mission to man-up' he explained. 'It is not used for women too?' he queried.

'No' Weir replied.

'English may be the only language that suffers from multiple personality disorder' Vaselov decided. 'It is an unholy mixture of German, French and seemingly everything else all jumbled up and it frequently makes no sense at all' he declared, throwing up his hands.

'You wouldn't be the first person to think so' Weir replied, she spoke five Earth languages herself and since getting involved in the Stargate program had picked up Goa'uld and Ancient. 'We can switch to Russian if you like' she offered.

'No, I've heard your accent' Vaselov replied deadpan, trying not to laugh at the indignant expression that crossed her face for an instant.

'Are you here to try and make me feel worse than I already do?' Weir asked him.

'No I'm here because I want you to realise that shit happens and you need to get over it' Vaselov told her. 'I got that one right did I not?' he asked. 'Shit happens?'

'Yes that one was right' Weir replied with a sigh. 'I guess you've got a few things on your conscience that nag at you right?' she asked.

'During the fighting in Chechnya in 1999 I bombed several targets which most likely contained civilians as well as the rebels, it's also possible that there were no rebels there at all because our intelligence was not so great' Vaselov told her. 'They died and I was promoted to Colonel and transferred to the Space Program and then onto X-COM' he said. 'That bothers me sometimes' he admitted.

Weir looked away. 'All just Collateral Damage' she said quietly.

'Life is not fair, it is not just' Vaselov told her. 'Not everything is within your control and you should only dwell on the past in order to make sure you do not repeat the same mistakes, not to wallow in self pity' he said.

'I've got to ask' Weir replied. 'Did you draw the short straw when it came to trying this amateur psychology on me?' she asked.

'No, our professional Doctor Heightmeyer was of course too busy with the children and it terms of seniority it would fall to myself or Doctor McKay' Vaselov replied. 'I did not think McKay was well suited to the task' he added, greatly understating his feelings on the matter.

'Yes I don't think it would have been Rodney's forte' Weir agreed.

'However that which he is good at he is very good at I will have to admit' Vaselov noted. 'I was asked to mention that he and the Travoc have finally managed to fully get through the encryption on the files we obtained from the Drilling Platform and reintegrate them with the Atlantis Database where they had been deleted from' he said. 'What they have learned is very interesting.'

'And you won't tell me so I'll have to get out of here right now and ask right?' Weir asked.

'Right' Vaselov confirmed.

'Not the most subtle tactics' Weir told him.

'I am X-COM Doctor Weir' Vaselov told her, getting up off his chair. 'Subtle is not kicking in your door and having a squad of troopers dragging you out of here' he said, politely holding out his hand to help her up which she took.

'So how long would it have been before you decided to take over?' Weir asked, standing up herself.

'I have no desire to deal with all those civilians' Vaselov told her honestly. 'I would have submitted a report requesting a replacement from Earth if I thought you were going to continue to go about your duties like a robot then return to your quarters every day' he said. 'As a favour could you please reply to the emails from Commander Sharp's wife' he requested. 'Because you have not as yet she is on his back and he has been on mine.'

'The Tollan deciding not to send the ship carrying the Stargate Capacitor until they had a better idea of what was going on with the Aquatoids and were certain Atlantis was secure isn't my fault either' Weir pointed out. 'Cassandra being stranded here in Pegasus longer than expected is completely outside my control.'

'I agree but I believe the Commander is suffering the brunt of her mother's concern' Vaselov replied.

Weir smiled evilly. 'Nothing like schadenfreude to improve your mood' she said.

Colonel Vaselov frowned and shook his head. 'That is another example of what I was saying earlier' he responded. 'English does not merely borrow words from other languages' he said. 'It follows them into dark alleys and mugs them for vocabulary' he complained.

McKay was in his lab with Travoc and Major Sheppard when Weir and Vaselov got there. 'You're going to love this' Sheppard told them wryly as they arrived.

'Something in your tone tells me that's not true' Weir replied.

'That would be the sarcasm Ma'am' Sheppard told her. 'Rodney would you care to tell Doctor Weir and the Colonel your findings?' he requested.

Rodney groaned. 'Yes but you're really not going to be impressed at just how arrogant our ancestors were' he said.

'And that's coming from a man who knows his arrogance' Sheppard quipped, earning a look of annoyance from McKay in response.

'So what more have we learned?' Weir asked.

McKay rolled his eyes. 'As we suspected, shortly before the War with the Wraith the Ancient's new Drilling Platform was happily rolling along the seabed drilling for test samples when it discovered something very unexpected under million years worth of sedimentary rock' he said. 'Upon investigation the Lanteans were more than a little shocked to find an active time-dilation field down there which upon further study turned out to be surrounding a colony belonging to a species their own distant ancestors had dealt with back when stargates were the latest thing.'

'So what did they do?' Weir asked.

'Think overly curious children, a stick and a hornets nest' Sheppard told her. 'They kinda poked it' he said.

'Poked it?' Weir queried.

'You've got to remember it had been tens of millions of years since they had last encountered the Aquatoids' McKay reminded her. 'To them it was like us finding Carthaginians left over from the Punic Wars with Rome so instead of just blasting the thing they wanted to study it, thinking that with all their advanced technology it wouldn't be dangerous' he continued. 'So for a few months they devoted time and effort into researching what they'd found and they did learn a few interesting things I've got to admit' he said.

'Such as?' Weir asked.

'Well for a start just by dating the rocks around the colony they managed to get a decent theory on what had happened' McKay told her. 'Travoc, you read all this stuff want to continue?' he asked.

'Why not' the Tollan replied, crossing his arms. 'It's likely that the Aquatoids here in Pegasus were aboard a Aquatoid City-Ship the Alterans knew of from captured enemy prisoners but never managed to locate' he said.

'It was called T'leth' Sheppard interjected.

'Correct' Travoc confirmed. 'The Lantean scientists concluded that when the Aquatoids knew they were going to lose the war they sent T'leth to Pegasus to establish a new set of colonies, either as a survival strategy or perhaps intending to carry on the war after they had built up sufficient infrastructure' he said.

'So what happened?' Weir asked.

'Ah well you see after dating the rocks the Lanteans realised that the Aquatoids went to ground here in Pegasus right about the time that an automated vessel belonging to the Ancients arrived in this galaxy to seed stargates' Travoc replied. 'Although the Ancients didn't colonise Pegasus themselves until much later on they did set up stargates here to facilitate future expansion.'

'First generation stargates' McKay told Weir. 'The current ones in the Milky Way are Second Generation and those here in Pegasus are Third Generation ones which the Lanteans replaced the originals with when they relocated from Earth.'

'Is that really relevant Rodney?' Sheppard asked him.

'Details are important' McKay defended himself.

'Not always Doctor McKay' Colonel Vaselov told him. 'So the Lanteans reasoned that the Aquatoids hid because they presumably feared an Ancient Fleet arriving and finishing them off?' he checked.

'Yes' Travoc replied. 'They actually went so far as to send a remote probe through the time-dilation field to take readings which was probably a very big mistake.'

'That would be the poking I talked about' Sheppard noted.

'The Aquatoids woke up?' Weir asked.

'No' Travoc told her, 'or at least the Lanteans didn't think so which made them a little over-confident because they then decided they could get away with trying to access the colony database in order to determine the location of T'leth itself and any other Aquatoid outposts in Pegasus.'

'Coincidentally, or likely not, it was while they were trying to do this that the Wraith appeared and priorities shifted away from investigating an apparently inert colony towards fighting a war' McKay added.

'You believe the Wraith were created by the Aquatoids?' Vaselov checked.

'Biotechnology was their forte from what we know about them' Travoc replied.

'Yes but the Aquatoids didn't have Psionics and the Wraith...' Weir began then paused. 'Were designed to not have that weakness' she realised.

McKay nodded. 'We think the Wraith are a very large biological weapon which the Aquatoids released on the galaxy when the Lanteans woke them up' he said then looked awkward. 'It's possible that they've been monitoring their progress ever since and re-appeared now wondering what happened to all those hiveships we blew up.'

'But the Ancients lost the war ten-thousand years ago, why didn't the Aquatoids re-emerge then?' Weir queried.

'Maybe because Atlantis was still powered all that time and the Aquatoids didn't want to stick their heads up above the parapet until they were sure they weren't going to get them shot off by millions of drones' Sheppard suggested.

'We found a file in which one Lantean scientist named Janus did argue during the war that the Aquatoids were responsible for the Wraith, and that strange energy readings they were occasionally picking up in subspace weren't due to the space-vampires but were Aquatoid communications instead but was ignored' Travoc told them.

Sheppard pursed his lips. 'Why dismiss the idea?' he asked.

'Because the Aquatoids didn't use subspace' McKay replied, 'or at least they didn't during their war with the Alterans' he continued. 'Janus counter-argued that the Aquatoids most likely developed subspace communications here in Pegasus after the war and said they would have probably been trying to develop their own equivalent of the drones and build hyperdrive starships too.'

'Because they didn't want to lose the rematch' Sheppard added in agreement himself.

'I'm afraid to say that the Ancients underestimated their enemy and overestimated themselves' Travoc observed. 'Their technology made them arrogant' he said.

'Sounds like another people I could mention' Sheppard replied with a smirk.

'Smartass' the Tollan responded, he knew very well his people were seen that way by others.

'So we don't think T'leth is here on Lantea?' Weir asked McKay, ignoring the exchange.

'No the Ancients confirmed that' McKay told her. 'They were planning to carry out detailed surveys of every planet in Pegasus, starting with the ones with large oceans of course, but the Wraith turning up prevented them before they could start.'

Sheppard 'So what now?' he wanted to know. 'I mean we haven't heard anything from the Aquatoids in weeks, do you think they've gone back to sleep?' he wondered.

'They wouldn't have learned much from the prisoners they took at least' Travoc noted. 'Do you think it might be worth trying to get the Asgard to attempt communication?'

'That would be the IOA's call but I've already suggested it' Weir replied. 'How are we set to defend Atlantis if they attack now?' she asked Vaselov.

'We're expecting the first ASROC missiles for our VLS batteries in the next supply shipment' the Colonel told her. 'I'm happy to say that my own country is also sending Shkval rocket torpedoes which will certainly be useful.'

'Didn't one of those things explode in the tube and sink one of your submarines?' Sheppard queried.

'A freak accident' Vaselov replied dismissively. 'In any case they are the fastest torpedoes made by any nation on Earth and coupled to nuclear warheads will provide us with a very useful capability' he said.

Weir gave Rodney a look which told him to make sure the damn things weren't going to blow up part of the city. 'We're not exactly well prepared to fight an enemy coming from below not above are we?' she asked.

'No we are not' Vaselov admitted. 'The drones represent our best weapon but we have very few' he said. 'We are certainly not equipped to fight actions underwater if it ever comes to that' he continued, 'the plasma weapons do not work at all in that environment, lasers are severely limited in capability even if we can modify our L2A3 rifles to fire underwater at the required frequency of light and we can't even use the cydonium that we make our armour from because salt water corrodes it very quickly.'

'We might be able to design some gear based loosely upon the Lantean deep-sea diving suits we found on the Drilling Platform if we need something like that' McKay suggested. 'If we used trinium instead of cydonium that would work but I'm still not sure how much conventional armour will help against sonic weaponry' he admitted. 'As for fighting underwater we could make you some spearguns I guess?'

'That's quite a step-down from a Heavy Plasma Rifle Rodney' Sheppard said sardonically.

McKay looked angry. 'What do you expect us to do?' he asked irately, taking that as a personal slight. 'We're not miracle workers that can turn weapons designed to be fired through the air into something that would work in...' he continued then trailed off. 'Okay I can get you something better than a speargun in a few days' he realised.

'That was fast even for you' Sheppard told him, amazed.

'I just realised we've already got everything we need to produce a gauss rifle' McKay explained. 'We never put much effort into developing mass-driver weapons because we had plasma based ones but the more I think about it now the easier I think it'll be.'

'What's a gauss rifle?' Weir asked in confusion.

'A coilgun' McKay explained. 'You use electrical current to accelerate a projectile instead of a chemical reaction' he explained. 'If we use the battery packs from laser rifles, superconducting coils made from naquadah and I'm thinking silicon steel for projectiles I can get you a gun that would have a hypersonic muzzle velocity out of the water and still be going at a hell of a rate under it' he said confidently. 'We can probably make gauss-cannon too, arm the city and maybe some jumpers with them.'

'You know if we keep you under constant threat of alien attack the rest of your life you'll end up a nervous wreck but you'll have invented a hell of a lot of stuff Rodney' Sheppard told him appreciatively.

* * *

**Desert of Cethlenn – Magtireth (P9K-429) – January 2005**

Morrigans forces defending the planet were breaking. She had deployed her elite Raven Guard into the fight to stiffen the ranks of her regular Jaffa and almost all of her reserves were now thrown into the fight too but against the forces Baal had sent to Magtireth they were simply outgunned and outclassed.

Thanks to his fleet of advanced Ha'taks Baal had brushed aside an armada consisting of the fleets of Morrigan herself, Olokun and Camulus and was now blitzkrieging his way through Morrigan's territory, intending to knock her out of the war once and for all, securing his flank before dealing with Lord Yu.

Baal's motherships designed by Nerus were hybrids of those used by Apophis and Anubis, with Thoth further upgrading them since by adding scores of Plasma-Repeater-Cannon to their close-in arsenal as a defence against massed Deathgliders and Al'kesh. They were faster, more heavily armed and more heavily shielded than any Ha'tak seen before and despite the best efforts of the Tau'ri to disrupt Baal's logistics and destroy his shipyards there were now far, far too many of them in service for comfort.

It wasn't just in space that Baal now had a massive technological edge on the System Lords in opposition to him. When the first Troopships landed on Magtireth it wasn't Jaffa in chain mail armour carrying Staff-Weapons that poured out, instead the first wave consisted of hundreds of Kull Warriors who secured a landing zone for the bulk of the ground forces that followed in their wake. Next thousands of Jaffa landed, wearing the zat-proof and plasma-resistant body-armour developed by Sokar and bearing new Staff-Rifles like the Rebel Free Jaffa used, only these were also fitted with zat'nik'tel dischargers like the Tau'ri's own weapons.

If Baal's New Model Jaffa Army had only been supported by the Heavy Staff-Cannon and Plasma-Repeater-Cannon mounted on carriages they had with them it would have been bad enough for Morrigan's forces but when the invaders started bombarding entrenched positions and bunkers with massed Plasma Mortars even her vaunted Raven Guards soon began to waver. Overhead dozens of Baal's chappa'nok'kek ground-attack aircraft prevented Morrigan's Jaffa from pulling back to the next line of prepared defences once the first began to buckle, bombing them with Plasma-Charges and strafing them with Plasma-Repeater-Cannon when they tried.

If Magtireth fell Morrigan intended to surrender to Baal before he could devastate her capital world which lay in a system less than two hours away at the speed his ships could travel. She had already told her allies of this, thinking that although they would damn her as a coward and a traitor they would also send everything they could to her aid in order to keep her in the fight. Unfortunately although they had indeed rallied as a response, and their combined fleets were even now attempting to break through Baal's own to relieve Magtireth, by the time they could get here it would be too late.

The Raven Guards of Morrigan had long believed that their god loved them more than the gods of other Jaffa loved them. She was never needlessly cruel to her own followers, preferring to reward them for good service rather than punish them severely for failure and due to this they were ever loyal, knowing that life under almost any other goa'uld would be worse both for them and their families.

Baal himself had a reputation for being fair by the standards of the System Lords, but he was also ruthless to the point at which he would destroy worlds containing millions of his own subjects rather than let them fall into the hands of his enemy. It would certainly be better to be ruled by Baal than by a psychopath like Moloc for example but Morrigan's investment of instilled loyalty meant that her Raven Guards were still willing to fight on when the armies of Camulus or Olokun would have long since surrendered. Quite simply Morrigan's Jaffa and their families would likely live better more secure lives under their current ruler they thought and thus it a mixture of faith and perceived self-interest which stopped them giving up even after defeat looked inevitable.

Mek'nar, First Prime of Morrigan was leading the battle to defend Magtireth himself taking overall command of all forces whilst ceding direct control of the Raven Guard to his father Relnar who had preceded him as First Prime. Although approaching a hundred and twenty-five years and now retired from active service Relnar was considered by some a Jaffa Master to rival the once famed, and now infamous, Bra'tac and his reputation alone was likely doing more to help hold the line than another company of Jaffa would have managed.

Lacking any kind of sophisticated command and control apparatus Mek'nar was forced to rely upon message runners, and those few that managed to make it to and from the various units engaged without getting shot on the way delivered nothing but bad news. To be honest with himself Mek'nar knew that only the fact they still outnumbered Baal's forces by a considerable margin, and that they had dug in rather than try to fight the invader in the open, had prevented a total defeat within hours. Baal's forces were fighting almost like the cursed Tau'ri, Mek'nar thought bitterly. They would use artillery to soften up their objective and then using air-support to protect their flanks from counter-attacks they would concentrate their Kull Warriors and their disturbing well-equipped infantry in force to storm the position taking but few losses in the process. Free to manoeuvre, screened by their deadly artillery support and with total air-superiority the enemy could dictate the terms of the battle and they were conducting what Mek'nar had to admit was a very professional campaign that mixed overwhelming firepower with good tactical sense.

Expecting his command bunker to be quickly located and bombed Mek'nar had left it hours ago and was now leading his men as best he could from a trench not too far behind what was now the front line. Looking over the rim of the trench he could see a hill a league distant being pounded from a distance by Heavy Staff Cannon and Plasma Mortars while other gun-crews moved up the shorter-ranged but much faster-firing Plasma-Repeater-Cannon into range ready to support an assault. 'My father is there' Mek'nar said softly to himself, hoping that the old man would die bravely with honour when the Kull attacked and had not been blown into fragments already. Periodically a lone Staff-Cannon dug-in up on the hill would fire back, signalling defiance and proving that the Raven Guards holding the hill were not beaten yet but it seemed almost a futile gesture.

'Where are our deathgliders?' a young Jaffa warrior asked bitterly, Mek'nar turning to face him and now realising on looking more carefully that under the dirt on his face the boy serving as a runner could be no older than fourteen.

'They were all shot down after trying and failing to match the new deathgliders of Baal flown by his Aereon pilots' Mek'nar told him. 'Our warriors fought bravely, do not think otherwise' he said.

'Baal has no honour to use the orak Kull and Aereon monsters against true warriors' the boy declared. 'But our faith and bravery will win the battle' he added confidently.

Very young and definitely not very wise Mek'nar decided sadly. 'Just keep your head down' he advised. 'You would not serve your goddess well by getting it shot off when I will likely need you to carry a message inside it for me soon' he told him. 'We should only be grateful that we are not being bombarded from orbit' he said, knowing that this was most likely because Baals fleet was currently too busy doing to those of Morrigan, Camulus and Olokun what his ground forces were doing to the defending army here, in short beating the crap out of them.

'Morrigan will not abandon us' the young Jaffa said with certainty. 'I am certain that she is right now preparing to lead a new army here to drive off the invader' he said.

Mek'nar couldn't help but laugh at the naivety. 'How many Jaffa Warriors do you think Morrigan has that were not lost in previous battles with Apophis or Baal or are not already here?' he asked rhetorically. 'This is our last stand, Morrigan has no more warriors to send into the fight, our only hope for assistance is if Baal's fleet is defeated allowing what is left of the armies of our allies to get here' he said.

'They will come and if they do not we will just have to kill all the enemy ourselves' the boy said, demonstrating a lack of comprehension of the situation which Mek'nor decided was was almost awe-inspiring in scale. On the plus side however the First Prime no longer considered that the boy's brains being blown out was going to be any great loss to their goddess or the universe in general.

When Morrigan had told her allies that if Magtireth fell she would leave the alliance the System Lords had reluctantly dispatched what ships they could to try and beat back the enemy but the Tau'ri with so few capital vessels, and now a mini-empire of sorts to protect too, had been unwilling to send their own into the fray, not that a single Ha'tak and a pair of BC-303's could have achieved much anyway.

One advantage that the Tau'ri did have was that with their upgraded hyperdrives their Avenger Transports were considerably faster than even the ships used by Baal. The Ancient modifications severely reduced how long the drives would last but as long as you were prepared to completely overhaul the engines after running them flat-out for any length of time the overclocked hyperdrives on the Avengers gave Earth a considerable edge in capability over any of the Goa'uld. Currently five of the ships modified as bombers were being kept in constant readiness as a strategic deterrent, what had been their cargo bays now filled with Mark VIII naquadah-enhanced nuclear devices until their intended replacements the mighty Mark IX's with their even more fearsome naquadria boosted warheads could be put in service. This time however it wasn't those particular Avengers that were about to arrive at Magtireth, the ones now dropping out of hyperdrive at the edge of the atmosphere were carrying something as a payload that wasn't so indiscriminately destructive although it was nevertheless designed as a weapon of terror and intimidation.

The Jaffa said that only the desperate, the deranged and the Tau'ri would ever choose to emerge from hyperspace at full speed so close to a planet. There was always the problematic issue of decelerating and pulling up before you smashed into the ground and that was only if your shields hadn't failed and you weren't already incinerated by entering the atmosphere too fast at a highly ill-advised angle. If you were however intent on trusting your life to the pilots sat in front and the engineers who had put the thing together for the X-COM Troopers sat in the back of the four Avengers which were now ploughing their way through the stratosphere of P9K-429 there was no better way to drop headlong into a warzone.

Falling like meteors, shields engulfed in flame the four Avenger Transports hurtled from the sky about thirty miles from the battlefield, pulling up barely two thousand feet above the ground and then turning in formation they tore through the sky towards the scene of the fighting. Although taken by surprise Baal's deathgliders which had been patrolling high above protecting their ground troops from air attack began to vector towards the interlopers their Aereon pilots not merely ready for combat but created for it.

The Avengers slowed as they neared what was obviously the front line and the rear ramps began to lower, they wouldn't be landing but they didn't have to assuming the gear the Poor Bloody Infantry in the back actually worked as intended.

Mek'nar and thousands of others watched in amazement as the Tau'ri machines he recognised from images all Jaffa were now shown as part of their training suddenly turned ninety degrees and now flying parallel to the front lines a few miles back things began to tumble from the back, plummeting to the ground. 'If those are bombs then the Tau'ri have even worse aim than our pilots' he observed sagely.

As he fell through the sky Colonel Gomez Rodrigues hoped to hell that the technicians were right about the damn elerium powerplant built into the suit. They had nicknamed it "The Cat" saying that the gyroscope and electronics would automatically ensure that the anti-gravity unit would both slow his descent and ensure the suit would always land on its feet with no input from the wearer and to their credit it seemed they were right as the Mark II correctly orientated itself and Rodrigues landed upright and without to much of a jarring impact when his feet hit the ground.

Unfortunately he was facing the wrong way and as the rest of the troopers landing in a long string alongside him he turned towards where the fighting was. 'This is the Colonel' he said into the microphone fitted inside his helmet. 'Keep at least a hundred metres apart when we advance' he told his troopers as the line sorted itself out into a semblance of order. 'Raise shields and prepare to advance' he instructed them as he activated his suits own shield and made sure that all his weaponry was showing as operational. 'Up and at 'em X-COM' he bellowed. 'On the bounce!' he said activating the anti-gravity unit again in a pulse, putting a lot more spring in his step as he and another forty-seven X-COM Troopers in Mark II Powered Armour began bounding like demented kangaroos towards the enemy, each great leap into the air by the bulky suits covering a distance that an Olympic long-jumper could only dream of.

After unloading their cargo the Avengers had closed their ramps and accelerated away, their elerium powered gravity/induction sublight drives giving them performance that the deathgliders in pursuit could also only dream of. Keeping just out of effective weapons range the Avengers now had the task of drawing off as many of the enemy aircraft as they could so instead of going to afterburners and leaving the deathgliders trailing in their wake they let the opposition keep close enough on their tails to keep them interested as they now headed towards the north pole, dropping down to five hundred feet and ramping up to hypersonic velocity.

'What in the name of Morrigan is that?' Mek'nar asked incredulously as a line of what looked like gigantic fleas in the distance seemed to be jumping in his direction. As they neared he was able to get a better idea of their shape and realised they had arms and legs though the proportions were all wrong to be a man. 'Only the Tau'ri would possibly come up with something like that' he decided, realising that it must be some new type of the mechanical suits they used.

Some of the Troopers were making sounds that could only be described as squeals of delight as they advanced but Rodrigues forgave them because he himself was grinning like a lunatic behind his armoured faceplate. 'We're coming into range now boys and girls' he told them. 'Use your grenade launchers to take out the field guns first then target any Kull you see before shooting up the regular infantry' he ordered, spotting a Staff-Cannon in the distance.

One of the Tau'ri suits jumped right over the top of the trench Mek'nar was in and he would later swear on his mother's life that he heard the human inside make a whooping sound as they sailed overhead, landing a half dozen paces ahead jumping again, doing so once more before they stopped and raised their left arm to take aim.

The targeting computer built into his helmet projected a firing solution onto the inside of his visor and Rodrigues took aim with the automatic grenade-launcher fitted to his suit. Because of variations in gravity and air-pressure as well as local wind conditions the suit's designers doubted that you could usually manage a first-round hit at long range but then again the launcher could cycle so fast you could always correct for the second shot or even walk the explosions onto your target if you had to.

With a loud "ka-pung" noise the grenade-launcher fired a high-explosive round towards the Staff-Cannon Rodrigues had spotted, the explosion kicking up a spray of arid soil just short of the target when it arrived shortly after. Demonstrating why he was rated the best soldier in X-COM the Colonels second round landed right on top on the field-piece destroying it and killing its gun-crew. 'Oh this is fun' Rodrigues said gleefully as he redirected his fire on a pair of Plasma-Repeater-Cannon that were quite obviously now being re-aimed in his direction.

Having soon attracted the attention of every field-gun the enemy had the troopers were not stupid enough to stay in one place so they could be shot at and they began moving again in chaotic fashion, pausing to fire their grenade launchers at targets of opportunity. As they closed with Baal's army they also started firing the Heavy Plasma Rifles they were carrying to deal with the Kull Warriors who were now spraying plasma bolts in their direction, the energy bursts splashing ineffectually against the shields of the Mark II's.

Not all of the troopers were carrying grenade launchers and as a chappa,nok,kek came in on a strafing run it ran headlong into a naquadah-enhanced blaster-bomb which was fired at it by a Tau'ri soldier assigned to air-defence. The explosion was only in the low-kilotons but the gate-fighters own shield was not strong enough to survive that treatment and what was left of the craft after most of it was turned to vapour rained down over the desert.

Now already far to the north the Avengers suddenly went to afterburner and began to climb towards high altitude, the deathgliders trying and failing to keep up with the rate of climb and acceleration of the Tau'ri machines, once they were at the edge of space and going nearly full speed the Avengers pulled as sharp a turn as they could and began heading back towards the battlefield baffling the skilled but unimaginative Aereons following them.

Soon out of grenades because of the sheer number of worthwhile targets Rodrigues and the others had begun to engage the enemy infantry in earnest. Their job now was to slaughter as many as possible, as much for the psychological impact on the rest as it was to kill those who were unfortunately enough to be gunned down.

On many occasions the suits were hit by heavy weapons but their sheer mobility meant that it was hard to hit them again before they made a hasty jump away. The shield could survive several hits from a Staff-Cannon and would recharge from the suits naquadah-reactor if given some respite so none of the Mark II's and the troopers inside had been lost to enemy fire, a result better than Rodrigues had dared hope for. The element of surprise and the sheer shock of being attacked by the Tau'ri in this unorthodox manner had sent Baal's forces reeling, confusion reigned as the casualties soared.

The rate-of-fire of the three-barrelled plasma-repeater on his right arm was such that Rodrigues found he could practically cut Jaffa Infantry in half, their own armour unable to withstand the onslaught. The Kull were more resilient but his P3-A1 dealt with them handily enough and their own Plasma-Repeaters acted more like tracer-fire telling him where they were rather than as a serious threat to his suit as long as he kept a careful eye on the shield level and made sure to pull back from the fighting and let it recharge when necessary.

'Okay we've made our point and I think we've helped out here enough troopers' the Colonel signalled to his men. 'Time to get the hell out of dodge' he ordered, he and the others starting to bound back in the direction they had come from.

'They are fleeing?' the young Jaffa sharing a trench with Mek'nar asked in bewilderment. 'But they are surely not defeated?' he asked.

'The Tau'ri make war in strange ways' Mek'nar replied with a shrug. 'Perhaps they are re-grouping for another attack?' he theorised.

Two more chappa'nok'kek came screaming in, firing their plasma-repeater-cannon at the fleeing Tau'ri. They might have killed several if not for the blindingly bright beams of green light which speared one then the other heralding the return of the Avengers as they once again hurtled from the sky only this time slowing down to land it seemed.

The First Prime of Morrigan watched as the Tau'ri craft began to set down so their soldiers could climb aboard. 'They're leaving' he said in surprise, wondering if their intervention had been more aimed at telling both their enemies and allies what they could do rather than as an attempt to actually prevent the fall of Magtireth.

'Yes and their ships are playing music, can you hear it?' the young Jaffa added.

Mek'nar realised the boy was right and tried to pick out what it was.

_"Oh, they've got no time for glory in the Infantry.  
Oh, they've got no use for praises loudly sung.  
But in every soldier's heart in all the Infantry  
Shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young."_

By the time the deathgliders made it to the scene the Avengers were on their way to orbit and getting ready to hyperspace home, they had sent the message they intended.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

_In X-COM: Terror from the Deep it's learned that the Sectoid foe from X-COM: UFO Defence are descended from the Aquatoids so here I'm following that canon in making them the progenitors of the Asgard. The Aquatoids were an extremely nasty opponent in terms of the methods they employed which included turning human prisoners into Deep Ones or Bio-Drones. They employed powerful sonic-based weaponry (not a nice effect on your internal organs!) and a large proportion of their entire tech-base was organic._ _Regarding the subject races of the Aquatoids I think the Ohnes of P3X-866 are the best match for the Gillmen and the Gadmeer being reptilian with a tail make a good Tasoth descendant. The Ancients made the Gadmeer extremely docile compared to their ancestors and also gene-tweaked them so they wouldn't be interested in Earth-like worlds anyway._ _The extremely old Alteran ship Destiny from Stargate: Universe uses a different form of FTL travel than the hyperdrive which seems to have replaced it later (likely because it's not very fast). If both the Ancients and Aquatoids were using this slower FTL then when the former invented hyperdrive it would be a serious military advantage, one that the latter might well have trouble copying because we know from the organic Wraith Ships that subspace travel is bad for them._ _To me the Drone Weapons have always looked like something that was intended for underwater use. Having them originally designed to fight the Aquatoids fits nicely I think, as does a fear of the old enemy returning being why the Ancients placed Defence Platforms armed with Drones on their colonies._

___We know from Stargate: Universe that the Stargate Seeding Ships (with Destiny following) left Earth millions of years ago and headed out into the wider cosmos after planting stargates in closer galaxies like Pegasus. Here it was the arrival of these automated ships which caused the Aquatoids of T'leth and the colonies they had established to go to ground (fits the canon timeline quite nicely I thought!). __I couldn't imagine Weir not feeling more than a little guilty and remorseful for what happened to the children relocated from M7G-677 to the Lantean mainland so she's been moping around ever since a number of them were abducted by the Aquatoids (who are being quiet again, planning deep dark plots in the deep dark ocean...). __Atlantis has already been equipped with an Aegis System for air-defence and has VLS missile batteries for Standard Missiles which can also fire ASROC anti-submarine rockets (which have torpedoes as a payload). The Russian military is providing the VA-111 Shkval, a supercavitating torpedo (or rather an underwater rocket) which can go over 200 knots). __Gauss weaponry is a feature of X-COM: Terror from the Deep although not in the form of the coilguns I've described here which seem more in keeping with the technology and equipment they already have available._

_____Magtireth was a world belonging to Morrigan and seemed as good a place for a battle as any. Mek'nar was her First-Prime having taken over from his father Relnar. The Raven Guards are the elite Jaffa of Morrigan and I thought it likely that they would be deployed in dire circumstances like this. With his new weapons Baal is winning the war and the occasional bloody nose at the hands of the Tau'ri is not going to alter that fact. __I couldn't imagine an Avenger pilot not playing that song on his loud-speakers in the circumstances by the way!_  



	12. Chapter 12

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**Proculus Orbit – Pegasus Galaxy – January 2005**

'See Rodney, I told you it would be good to get away from Atlantis for a while and de-stress' Sheppard told the physicist sitting in the back of the Jumper as they performed a tight bank to starboard and got on the tail of the Wraith Dart which had bounced them as they orbited the planet below looking for signs of civilisation.

'We're fighting for our lives!' McKay exclaimed as the pilot lined up his shot.

'Yeah but that's better than being on Lantea waiting for the Aquatoids to do something isn't it?' Sheppard asked, face a mask of concentration as the alien fighter started jinking to try and throw him off.

Each of the weapon pods on the jumper was now fitted with one of the new three-barrelled plasma-repeaters sent from Earth, the same weapon that was fitted to the Mark II Powered Armour which the powers-that-be had not yet itself seen fit to add to the Atlantis armoury. As he got a bead on the dart Sheppard being firing short bursts of bright orange plasma bolts, trying to score a lucky hit, but the damn Wraith inside steadfastly refused to fly a steady course for more than a second. 'Stay still you son-of-a-bitch' Sheppard hissed.

'Don't overheat the Rotary-Repeaters Sir' Lieutenant Ford warned from the co-pilots seat. Outside an atmosphere without the benefit of conduction or convection to help out the weapon's ability to dump heat build-up they had to be treated gingerly.

'I know Ford' Sheppard replied evenly.

'It's an inherent problem with the technology' Rodney told Teyla, trying to take his mind off the situation. 'The original goa'uld version had to be fired in bursts too' he noted. Putting three together but only wanting double the rate-of-fire of one alone helped but without adding a cooling system that was impractical to stuff into the weapon pod you couldn't fire them too long before the safeties kicked in and shut them down to prevent explosion.

The Jumper shook as something struck their shield. 'We've got another dart on our tail' Ford announced.

'I wish I was in a 302' Sheppard muttered. The Puddle Jumper made for a nice little short-range transport but even with the addition of some guns and an electroplasmic shield generator it simply wasn't a good combat aircraft.

'Fire drones at them' McKay suggested.

'Drones are only to be fired as a weapon of last resort Rodney' Teyla reminded him. 'We have very few' she pointed out.

'Yeah can't you make more?' Ford asked.

'No' McKay replied. 'They weren't made on Atlantis and as far as we can tell the Ancients blew up all their factories to stop them falling into Wraith hands before they retreated to Lantea' he said. They had the same problem with Zero-Point-Modules, creating them required a manufacturing infrastructure which no longer existed in Pegasus.

'Well can't we make the machines that make drones?' Ford persisted.

'The Ancients used molecular assembly like the Asgard, we're a long way from being able to make a machine that you can feed raw materials in one end and get anything you want out of the other' McKay replied. 'The Tollan still only have limited capabilities in the field and their tech-base is centuries ahead of ours.'

'Gottcha' Sheppard said with satisfaction as he finally managed to hit the dart he was chasing with a short burst which ripped open the back of the Wraith fighter. The dart started spiralling making Sheppard think he must of hit the flight controls but at least it wasn't manoeuvring unpredictably any more. Sheppard quickly line up another shot and he quickly shredded the enemy craft which exploded.

'We've got three, make that four more darts heading our way' Ford announced. 'And we've still got the one on our ass' he added as another plasma bolt struck their shield from behind.

'That many darts will be able to knock our shield down faster than the naquadah generator will recharge it' McKay warned. The Electro-Plasmic shield back-engineered from the ones mounted on an older generation of Loki's own aerospace fighters was very effective but it was still a long way from being invulnerable.

'Time to head home kids' Sheppard responded, bringing the puddle-jumper around.

'We'll never get back to the spacegate before they catch up' McKay responded.

'Great, Colonel Vaselov says we have to account in writing for every drone we fire' Sheppard moaned as he realised he would have to take out at least a few of them with his irreplaceable drones.

'Darts are short-range, there could be a cruiser or even a hive nearby you know' McKay pointed out. One hit from the main gun on a hive would blow them apart, shield or not.

'Just my luck we'll see one when we're not carrying nukes' Sheppard said sadly.

'I could have been back in my lab working on the gauss-rifle prototype but oh no I get dragged out here to get shot at by a species that only exists because their creator is pissed at ours' McKay complained.

'They're closing' Ford told the others, watching the Head-Up-Display being projected in front of him.

'I'll take out three with drones' Sheppard decided, 'I should be able to handle the other two with the guns' he said confidently, turning the jumper around to head straight at the new quartet of darts heading their way.

'Um Sir what the hell is that?' Ford asked nervously as what looked like a giant bolt of ball lightning rose from the planet at high speed heading in their direction.

'Oh shit' Sheppard swore as it rapidly closed the distance between them, however at the last second it became obvious that it was going towards the four darts not the jumper.

The darts took evasive action but the energy ripped them apart before heading towards the jumper. 'Brace yourself' Sheppard said, hoping that their shield would hold.

The energy enveloped them for a moment but then kept going causing no damage to the jumper nor its shield before it struck the dart which was following them and destroyed it as it did the others before disappearing.

'Hey, we're alive' Ford said brightly.

'What the hell was that?' Sheppard exclaimed.

'Some sort of energy weapon fired from the surface' McKay stated.

'It looked like lightning' Ford said.

'Space lightning?' Sheppard queried.

'I already said it's some sort of energy weapon' McKay told them. 'One that apparently destroys Wraith darts' he added.

'Nice' Ford replied. 'But why them and not us?' he asked.

'If it was a plasma-based weapon as is likely it's possible that our electro-plasmic shield offered a perfect defence' McKay suggested.

'Or else whatever fired it only wanted to take out the darts' Sheppard countered.

'Either way, whatever fired that must have a lot of power-generation behind it' McKay noted.

'A ZPM?' Sheppard asked.

'Maybe' McKay replied. 'If it's a leftover Ancient weapon it would explain why it destroyed the darts not us.'

'So we should go down and take a look?' Ford asked.

'I didn't have plans I don't know about the rest of you' Sheppard replied. 'Remember, we're the Terrans and we come in peace' he told the others.

Teyla sighed. 'I am not sure I will be able to keep a straight face if you say that' she admitted. 'I hope you're not planning to take their ZPM by force if they have one?' she asked.

'After what happened to the kids from M7G-677 I doubt it' Sheppard replied.

They landed the puddle-jumper near a settlement they spotted on the way in and it was obvious that the locals themselves were not responsible for the weapon being a pre-industrial civilisation. The world was known as Proculus to its inhabitants; they had no knowledge of the wraith or indeed other worlds and believed that their goddess who they called Athar was responsible for their well-being and protection.

McKay wanted to carry out a thorough search of the planet to look for the weapon but both Teyla and Sheppard quite reasonably said they needed to ask the permission of the locals first. After talking to the priest who appeared to have authority in the village it was suggested they go talk to Chaya Sar, who they were told was the High-Priestess of Athar and who lived only a few miles away.

The senior religious authority on Proculus was not what Sheppard had been expecting but this was not to say that it was an unpleasant revelation to discover that Chaya Sar was much younger and inordinately hotter than he might have hoped for. She seemed to already know their names which McKay attributed to one of the locals running ahead and she was certainly friendly, offering to make tea for them all.

Teyla was not entirely convinced by Sheppard's argument that he had only invited Chaya Sar back to Atlantis to be friendly, and perhaps try and convince her not only to let them look for the weapon but also take in the refugees from the Aquatoid attack on the Lantean mainland, but she played along. Certainly she already liked and trusted the woman from Proculus more than she did Sora of the Genii who had been all to obviously offering her favours to the Major and if John was going to be thinking with his penis at least it was showing better taste this time.

They radioed ahead and were met by Weir in the jumper room after returning through the spacegate along with their passenger. 'Welcome to Atlantis' Weir greeted the woman from Proculus with a smile, holding out her hand to shake.

'Thank you' Chaya replied, shaking hands and smiling back.

'I hope you don't mind but our doctors do require a medical exam of all offworld team members and our visitors but after that perhaps you would like a full tour' Weir told her.

'I would love that' Chaya replied then froze. 'Damn' she said suddenly.

A young woman ran into the jumper bay slightly out of breath with a confused looking man in a X-COM jumpsuit trailing her. 'I don't know what the hell that is Doctor Weir' Cassandra stated but get away from it' she insisted.

'What are you talking about Cassandra?' Weir responded.

'Whatever that is it's got its psionics cranked up to eleven' Cassandra said, pointing at Chaya. 'I felt it arrive even without my psi-amp turned on' she said. 'It's on now' she said, holding out one hand, fingers outstretched ready to fight but not rating her chances.

Chaya chuckled. 'Psionic amplification' she said. 'We dabbled with that ourselves' she said.

'If you're here to cause trouble then...' Cassandra began then her eyes widened. 'I'm way out of my league' she said.

'Cassie?' her boyfriend Gaston who had chased her all the way from her quarters asked nervously.

'She's stronger than anything I've ever encountered before' Cassandra said in shock. 'Psionic Strength and Skill must be over a thousand' she added.

Everyone was now staring at Chaya. 'What are you?' Weir asked.

'I knew it would be a mistake coming here' Chaya said regretfully.

'I think she's an Ancient' Cassandra said. 'An _ascended_ Ancient' she added.

'What?' Sheppard exclaimed.

'We've seen them take human form before' McKay noted, looking Chaya up and down. 'One was called Orlin' he recalled. 'Followed SG-1 back from Earth' he continued. 'Had good taste in women' he noted. 'It was you that destroyed those darts wasn't it?' he checked.

'Athar looks after her people' Chaya confirmed. 'And passing strangers wandering by in familiar ships' she added with a smile.

Weir trawled her memories for old mission reports. 'Orlin helped the people on Velona build weapons to protect themselves from the Goa'uld and the other ascended Ancients kicked him out for it' she remembered.

'That turned out worse for Velona than my interfering did for Proculus' Chaya said.

'You know him' Weir asked.

'Of course, hardly any of the others will talk to us' Chaya replied. 'I only wanted to come here to look around again' she said wistfully. 'And because I think you're hot too John' she told Sheppard, smiling at him.

Weir collected her thoughts. 'I don't suppose you could...'

'Answer all the questions you'd love to ask me?' Chaya interrupted. 'No, but mainly because the others wouldn't let me' she told them apologetically.

'You are one of the Ancestors' Teyla said in awe. 'This was once your home.'

Chaya shook her head. 'I attended school here but I lived on Proculus which is why I couldn't let the Wraith kill the humans we left behind there when we ascended' she replied. 'My punishment is that I was made responsible for that world until the end of time' she told them, 'but only that world and its people no others' she continued apologetically. 'I cannot allow refugees from other worlds threatened by the Wraith to go there or the others will stop me saving anyone.'

'Is she telling the truth?' Weir asked Cassandra.

'No idea but she's strong enough to tear this whole city apart telekinetically so I don't know why she would bother lying to the likes of us' Cassandra replied.

'I'd still like that tour if it's on offer' Chaya requested.

Weir frowned. 'Isn't there _anything_ useful you can tell us?' she asked. 'Any advice?'

Chaya thought about that for a moment. 'Don't wake up the Aquatoids' she said, laughing for a few moments before she stopped having seen the expressions on their faces. 'Oh you _didn't_ ?' she asked in dismay.

* * *

**Modified Goa'uld Ha'tak – Cartago Orbit (P3X-1279) – January 2005**

From the corridor Anubis looked through the bars of the holding cell at the captives who had been abducted from the planet below. 'One may be suitable for my next host' he told the Asgard stood beside him.

Loki looked up at the half-ascended goa'uld. From this angle he could see the corrupted, pallid flesh of its face beneath the hooded cloak. 'I could very easily clone you a replacement for the one you are using now as I have offered before' he said.

'There is little enjoyment to be had in transferring my lifeforce to an empty vessel' Anubis replied, turning away from the cell and continuing on his way with Loki walking beside him.

The Asgard muttered something to himself in his own language. 'Typically most goa'uld do not prefer to see the terror in the eyes of their next host when moving from one to the other' Loki remarked.

'I am no more a typical goa'uld than you are a typical Asgard' Anubis responded flatly.

'We are both too busy to once again begin a futile argument in which you try and equate your malevolent and psychopathic tendencies with my own desire to save my race' Loki stated. 'And slow down' he complained as he tried to keep up with his much taller companion.

Anubis smirked beneath his cowl. 'I doubt the humans in that cell, nor the families of those you slaughtered on Earth or Langara regard you as any less evil than they do I' he said in amusement, though he did slow his pace for the benefit of the rogue Asgard.

'I do not cause harm simply to entertain myself' Loki insisted, he might have found himself in alliance with this abomination but that didn't mean he either liked it or believed for a second he was on the same plane of morality.

Anubis laughed. He firmly believed that the extreme genetic engineering and generations of cloning Loki's people inflicted upon themselves stripped them of their ability to have fun as well as their genitalia. 'If your self delusion helps gets you through the day then who am to criticise?' he asked rhetorically.

Loki muttered to himself again but opted not to respond in a way Anubis could understand since it was obvious the goa'uld was now using him as a source of entertainment. On their way to the main hanger positioned nearby they passed a work crew of Sectoids who were stripping one of the last sections of original hieroglyphic covered goa'uld wall panels off and replacing them with plain silvery- metal plates. At this juncture Loki now also ignored his ally's disparaging remarks about boring Asgardian design aesthetics and instead began talking up the considerably stronger internal structure of the vessel now that utility had replaced gaudiness.

Originally designed for deathgliders the fighter bays of the ship were now filled to capacity with Loki's Type 4 aerospace fighters which unlike his earlier craft were shaped more like a conventional aircraft than the flying saucers. Anubis couldn't help but have a grudging respect for Loki in that he had designed and constructed a craft which not only seemed to exude menace it effortlessly outclassed anything else in the skies. 'You've made another upgrade' Anubis noted appreciatively as he looked over one of the craft which was being worked on.

'By adding an outer layer to the craft made of the material your Kull Warriors wear its resistance to damage from directed-energy-weapons once the shield fails is greatly increased' Loki explained. He had already incorporated the weave into the armour worn by his genetically engineered soldiers so adding it to his fighters too was a logical progression.

'And I thought you were convinced of the total superiority of its much vaunted near-miraculous shields in any engagement?' Anubis responded wryly. 'You've boasted of them enough.'

'I did not boast, I only ever stated the facts' Loki defended himself. 'In any case superiority is not invulnerability.'

'Obviously not given that the Tau'ri shot a number of these things down over their southern pole' Anubis noted, seeking to annoy the Asgard again.

'They had superior numbers and in any case most of the Type 4 losses were due to the Ancient Weapons not the human fighter force' Loki spat back. 'According to my intelligence sources on Earth the humans there have still not even managed to back-engineer the first-generation of Trans-Dimensional Shields which equipped my earlier Type 3 fighter' he said. The second-generation version of the shield mounted on the Type 4 was actually able to redirect some of the incoming energy from the weapons-fire it absorbed into its own shield buffer and therefore use that energy to recharge itself more quickly.

'Then why invest resources into upgrading a craft which is already two generations ahead of the Tau'ri who already themselves have a technological lead over the System Lords?' Anubis queried.

Loki crossed his arms. 'Because if I don't maintain such a large technological edge I am concerned that one day I am going to wake up and find myself strapped to an operating table with several smug looking humans standing over me holding laser-scalpels and mind-probes' the Asgard admitted. 'And in any case I also know from my sources on Earth that the Replicators are believed to be preparing for an attack on this galaxy.'

'You don't still believe that you can defeat the Replicators and then return home as the saviour of your people do you?' Anubis asked curiously. 'They won't welcome you with open arms renegade, they'll put you on trial and execute you at best' he said. 'At worst they'll hand you over to the humans of Earth or Langara.'

'Since I will have also discovered the means to save my species from the certain extinction resulting from our misguided cloning experiments centuries ago I doubt the Asgard High Council will commit suicide by foreswearing the knowledge I bring home with me' Loki replied confidently.

'I cannot help but be in awe of your blind optimism' Anubis told Loki sardonically.

'This from the being that thinks he will be able to usurp Baal's position as Supreme System Lord with ease' the Asgard responded in an equally sarcastic manner. 'His willingness to secretly accept the information and technological advice we have been feeding him in no way demonstrates an equal willingness to become your lackey' Loki stated. 'You are _not_ the secret power behind the throne you purport or desire to be' he told Anubis, 'and if you genuinely thought so yourself deep down then the Al'kesh vessel you stole from the humans when fleeing their home system would not have ended up sitting next to one of my transport ships in the next bay.'

'Baal is nothing but a puppet' Anubis maintained. 'I pull the strings.'

'From what I have been able to determine from analysing his political and military manoeuvrings over the last few years Baal is far more devious and likely more intelligent being than you are' Loki stated flatly. 'He also lacks your predilection for mindless, unproductive malevolence and frankly if it wasn't for the fact he would betray me at the earliest opportunity I would have abandoned you in favour of a formal alliance with him long ago' the Asgard continued. 'Just because he has played along with the charade that you are still in some way the one steering the course of events does not make it so' he said. 'You would grasp that yourself if you were not blinded by megalomania and an ego which is so vast it would require hyperdrive to quickly traverse.'

Anubis was becoming very angry, not a difficult emotional response to provoke in his case. 'All of Baal's Kull Warriors are loyal to me above him' he declared. 'It is still hard-wired into their genetic code and psychological conditioning' he said. 'I only have to order them to overthrow him and...'

'They are outnumbered by his Jaffa by several orders of magnitude' Loki interrupted, 'Jaffa that are far better trained and equipped than the ones your Kull once slaughtered with impunity' he said. 'Like my shields Kull armour is not invulnerable, it can only absorb so many hits from high-powered directed-energy weapons within a certain space of time and we now live in an era where Plasma-Repeater-Cannon are at the forefront of Goa'uld battlefield weaponry not weak, clumsy Staff-Weapons' the Asgard reminded the Goa'uld. 'You need me more than I need you remember that.'

'I could kill you in an instant' Anubis snarled. 'Do not provoke me.'

'My consciousness is backed-up in the ships computer and I have plenty of spare clones in storage' Loki replied placidly. 'While I'm being downloaded into a new body my soldiers will be flushing yours into space.'

Anubis noted that several of the warrior creatures the Tau'ri had named Mutons were situated nearby, armed with their powerful elerium-based Plasma-Weapons. If he attacked their creator they would instantly gun him down and unfortunately Loki also had powerful psionics amongst his other minions meaning that he would find it difficult to get away with surreptitiously transferring himself to another being on the Ha'tak. 'You can't kill me Loki' Anubis pointed out, this was true in that his lifeforce was indestructible, 'and you still need my assistance in perfecting the Ancient Genetic Re-sequencer because without it it's doubtful you will ever manage to permanently solve your cloning problem and allow your race the possibility to ascend any time soon.'

'I have already made great strides...' Loki began to reply.

'And have no idea even how many more are needed' Anubis interrupted him instead this time. 'Our agreement stands in that each of us will assist the other in achieving our goals' he said. 'Keep in mind that if the Replicators do invade and you and all the others they would seek to consume are unable to stop them then you will need me.'

'Assuming your claim to know the location of an Ancient Super-Weapon that can be used to annihilate them throughout the galaxy all at once isn't just bluster' Loki replied.

'It's not and if it comes to that I'll even let you take the credit for the victory' Anubis told him.

'The only reason I might believe that is because you would consider doing a good deed bad for your reputation' Loki responded, once again proving that the Asgard race did in fact possess a sense of humour.

* * *

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – January 2005**

Colonel Vaselov waited until everyone had taken their seats around the conference table and Elizabeth Weir closed the all panels before looking to her for permission to begin the daily briefing. Thanks to the rumour-mill most of those present would likely already be aware of what he was going to tell them but they needed to be told formally too and in any case the science personnel represented by Doctors McKay and Zelenka likely had additional information to add that the others would not have heard yet.

'So I guess the Aquatoids are on the move then?' Major Sheppard commented before the Colonel could begin. As second in command of the military contingent he got to attend these as did Doctor Beckett as head of Medicine and Teyla as the designated local advisor.

Vaselov nodded. 'So we believe' he replied, opting to ignore the breach of protocol. 'As you know the Genii have contacts and agents placed throughout much of this galaxy and at our behest they have been keeping alert for news of the Wraith or other possible threats' the Russian continued. 'One of these worlds, Latira, has reported a series of attacks by an unknown force against their coastal towns and villages over the last two weeks' he told the others. 'The survivors talk of creatures emerging from the sea and abducting the locals.'

'I'm not surprised' Rodney spoke up. 'We've been monitoring the subspace frequencies the Ancient Janus believed were associated with the Aquatoids and we've picked up a large volume of what we assume is signal traffic between the Aquatoid installation here on Lantea and the region of Pegasus Latira is located within recently.'

'I don't suppose you can tell what they're saying?' Weir asked.

Zelenka shook his head. 'We are not even at the stage of breaking the transmissions down into something we can begin to analyse and we must assume the messages are encrypted in any case' he told her. 'Travoc has been attempting to run what we have been picking up in subspace through the Atlantis computer via his Tollan interface hoping that it will be able to establish a pattern but as yet no luck.'

'Where is he anyway?' Sheppard asked. Normally the Tollan representative to the expedition attended these briefings so he could report back to the Curia.

'He told me earlier he had found something very interesting in the city database and he didn't want to break away from his work' Weir explained.

'Hey if that's a valid excuse to get out of these things I've always got work to do in the lab' McKay announced, starting to get up out of his chair.

'Sit down Rodney' Weir told him sternly.

'So it's one rule for the Tollan and another for the rest of us' McKay muttered to himself. 'The guy puts together a few big guns and helps out a little and everyone treats him like he walks on water instead of just floating on it like the rest of us.'

'So what are we going to do about Latira and their problems with the local sea-life?' Sheppard asked.

'We should seek to protect them' Teyla said. 'It is our fault that the Aquatoids have emerged at this time' she pointed out. 'If we had not destroyed some many Wraith Hives they would still be sleeping.'

'If we are assigning blame then it was the Ancients who first woke them up ten-thousand years ago and ended up inflicting the Wraith on this galaxy as a consequence' Vaselov countered. 'I do however concur that we should intervene on Latira for if nothing else the attacks their offer us the opportunity to capture prisoners and obtain samples of Aquatoid technology.'

'What are you thinking Colonel?' Weir asked him.

'I am thinking we deploy combat teams to Latira , ideally in cloaked Puddle-Jumpers so as to maintain the element of surprise, and seek to ambush the next attack' Vaselov replied. 'Our ability to fight them underwater is severely limited but if they are coming on land then we are fighting in our element not theirs.'

'Soggy little suckers are gonna get a great big surprise' Sheppard declared, grinning.

'But even if we're already on Latira how can we be sure we'll be able to get to the scene of the attack on time?' Weir queried.

'Easy' Vaselov replied. 'We know from the Genii that the Latirans are already starting to evacuate from the coast' he said. 'We ask them to leave a nice tempting town populated so the opposition go there.'

'You want to use people as bait?' Teyla asked, aghast.

'We already planned to use the Hoffans as bait for the Wraith' Sheppard reminded her.

'That is different John' Teyla responded, 'The Hoffan people chose to ignore our advice that their drug would make them a target rather than protecting them' she said. 'They put themselves in danger, we merely planned to use that to our advantage.'

'Then we'll ask for volunteers to stay behind' Sheppard replied, 'does that sound more reasonable to you?'

'It's better but still does not sit well with me' Teyla told him.

Zelenka laughed. 'Sorry' he apologised when everyone looked at him. 'I was thinking of what the Colonel said about us fighting them in our element' he said. 'The four elements of classical science were earth, air, fire and water.'

'Aqua being water and Terra being earth in both Latin and Ancient' Weir noted, grasping where he was coming from.

'It just struck me as funny' Zelenka said, smiling. 'The Terrans versus the Aquatoids, earth versus water.'

'So who's fire and air then?' Beckett asked.

'Well the ascended Ancients are kinda wispy when they're not pretending to be humans so I'm going to go with them as air but as for fire nothing springs to mind' Sheppard responded, maybe we just haven't met them yet he wondered?

'Talking of wispy things pretending to be human are the rumours about you and the ancient chick getting caught doing something over on the south pier before she went home true because I'm guessing not?' McKay asked.

'Rodney this is neither the time nor the place for questions like that' Weir told him in annoyance.

Sheppard smirked. 'Actually it was us catching Cassandra and Gaston...' he began to reply before a look from Weir cut him off. 'It's the invigorating sea air I'm sure' he said sheepishly.

'An ambush on Latira would give us the best opportunity we have so far enjoyed to test out the capabilities of our new foe' Vaselov told Weir. 'Eventually an incursion into one of their facilities will be required but until then we need to seize every opportunity that is offered' he said. 'If nothing else it is possible that a defeat, even a minor one, will cause them to pause any campaign while they take stock of the situation.'

'Give me a few more weeks and I'll have a diving suit our soldiers can use to fight them on their turf' McKay said confidently.

'Not that their turf is actually turf' Zeleka added, 'our turf being actual turf while theirs is probably more like seaweed.'

'You also said that you'd have a gauss-rifle we could use underwater by now' Sheppard noted.

'My prototype works perfectly well and only requires a couple of tweaks before we can start manufacturing units' McKay defended himself.

'When we test-fired the thing in the submerged jumper-bay it fused out' Sheppard reminded him.

'That's an easy fix' McKay hand-waved away the problem. 'You were impressed when you fired it off the tower weren't you?'

'It broke his collar bone and dislocated his shoulder' Beckett complained. 'I had to pull it back into position before I could put him in a sarcophagus to fix all the damage.'

'I _told_ him the recoil was going to be extreme' McKay responded. 'What did you _think_ would happen when a piece of steel came out the front at hypersonic velocity?' he asked Sheppard rhetorically. 'Never take Newton's Third Law lightly' he advised.

'It didn't look so bad when you fired it from the bench you set up to hold it' Sheppard replied.

'And if you'd looked at the bench carefully you'd have seen it was bolted to the deck' McKay told him. 'I only went back inside for a second and when I got back I found Major Disaster there on the ground screaming in agony with my prototype lying next to him' he told Weir.

Sheppard sighed, Rodney had a point he conceded to himself. It had just looked so damn cool firing the thing off into the distance especially because they were approaching nightfall when they started the testing and the friction of the air against the coilgun projectile when fired at maximum velocity made them glow as they hurtled towards the horizon. 'Next time I'll know' he said. 'And until the pain I was impressed' he told McKay.

It said a lot for how used you can get to just about anything that when Travoc walked through the wall nobody reacted with much more than a nod of greeting. Touching the phase-shifting device on his arm to switch it off the nervous expression on the Tollan's face when he turned to Weir did not fill her with happy thoughts. 'Sorry I'm late but I wanted to check and double check my findings before breaching this with you all' he said apologetically. 'I'm pretty sure that at least some of you are not going to take this at all well' he told them, greatly underestimating his thoughts on the matter as he took a seat.

'Okay after that kind of entrance it had better be good' Sheppard told him.

'Go ahead Tesserarius' Weir told the Tollan using his military rank.

Travoc took a breath. 'As you all know I have been attempting to consolidate all files from the Atlantis database pertaining to Ancient weaponry and military secrets for some time now and although it's taken me a while I'm finally starting to get concrete results' he began. 'I was already putting together a list of possible planets where we might find surviving equipment and test sites here in Pegasus when I broadened the search parameters to our own galaxy using the additional access we've had to encrypted data since the Aquatoids emerged' he said. 'Apparently the Ancients had instigated a contingency plan in case they did but unfortunately for them it didn't come to fruition in time for the Wraith War because it would have likely helped quite a lot based on our experiences here.'

'I don't suppose you could speed this up and get to the point could you?' Beckett requested. 'I've got to get back to the Medical Bay soon.'

The Tollan closed his eyes. 'Do you remember when I mentioned before about finding references to the Ancients undertaking a program involving genetic engineering back in the Milky Way' he asked rhetorically. 'Well as I theorised it was designed to produce a biological weapon of a sort and they enjoyed not inconsiderable success in that endeavour.'

'You are saying that there is a weapon's cache or something back home which you think we can find and recover the weapon for use against the Wraith or the Aquatoids?' Vaselov asked.

Travoc opened his eyes again. 'No it's already loose' he said. 'As a matter of fact it was contained back in the Milky Way but it's already spread to Pegasus now and it's already proving to be quite effective' he said. 'It's us' he stated.

'What?' Weir exclaimed.

'It's us' Travoc told her. 'The Ancients created humanity on Earth, directed our evolution and occasionally played with our DNA over the course of millennia in order to produce a species that was far superior to them in combat ability' he said. 'You know how it's been said several times that the Ancients were very bad at war' he continued, 'well they weren't' he said. 'The problem is that our perspective is skewed, the fact is that we were just designed to be very, very good at it.'

Weir blinked. 'I'm sorry' she said eventually after a long pause, 'could you say that again' she requested.

'Our species is the result of a long-term project to produce a more innovative and aggressive race than the Ancients themselves' Travoc told her. 'The Aquatoids made the Wraith to fight the Ancients and the Ancients basically made us to fight the Aquatoids' he said. 'That is to say not all humans were made for that' he noted, 'most of the people here in Pegasus weren't made as part of the project they were more like a well-meaning hobby I suppose.'

'We're weapons?' Beckett asked in shock.

'So it seems' Travoc told him. 'The Ancients tried to finish the project in a hurry here in Pegasus during their war with the Wraith but they didn't have time to do more than introduce a few extra genes into a small number of planetary populations' he said. 'We might want to check out a world called Sateda by the way' he advised.

Teyla raised her eyebrows. 'That could explain a great deal' she said while casting nervous glances at the Ancestor Weapons sat around the room.

Beckett was philosophical now he was starting to accept the news. 'Somehow I always thought that the meaning of life stuff we were going to discover while we explored the stargate network was going to be a lot deeper than just beating the hell out of all the hostile aliens we encountered on the way' he said. 'Ironic' he added, nodding to himself.

'It can't be true' Weir said to herself quietly, 'we _can't_ just be the leftover war-toys of some precursor civilisation' she tried to convince herself before a thought occurred and she suddenly stood up and thumped her clenched fists down on the conference table. 'I _refuse_ to accept that _Russell Sharp_ is a first class representative of what we were intended to be!' she shouted out into the universe before collapsing back into her chair, her eyes glassing over as she considered the bleakness of creation.

'I think you just broke the boss' Sheppard told Travoc who at least had the decency to look apologetic about it.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

_Chaya Sar, AKA Athar was the ascended ancient who lived on Proculus and did very nasty things to any Wraith that came near her planet. Pretending to be human she visited Atlantis in SGA episode 1.14 Sanctuary. __Like Orlin I imagined Chaya as being kept largely out-of-the-loop by the other ascended ancients so her not already knowing that the Aquatoids were backor that Cassandra was on Atlantis didn't seem drastically unlikely. Normally she wouldn't have to worry about any non-ascended being being able to tell she wasn't "normal" so a hok'tar with a couple of years of psionic training behind her caught Chaya unawares._

_Cartago (P3X-1279) was a world SG-1 visited in episode 1:16 Cor-ai. The people there called the stargate the 2Ring of Woe" and were frequently abducted by the goa'uld for use as hosts. The Tau'ri armed them so they could protect themselves but that's not much help when a Ha'tak upgraded with Asgard technology appears in orbit and starts beaming them up for use as experimental subjects and replacement hosts for a half-ascended System Lord. __The Type 4 (AKA "Spectre") fighter was the most dangerous craft used by the aliens in X-COM: Interceptor. It used a revolutionary shield design called an "Accumulator Shield" the sophistication of which is demonstrated by the fact X-COM couldn't back-engineer it! __In SG-1 Season 8 Anubis was secretly controlling Baal but here his control on events is not even remotely as powerful. Loki is keeping Anubis around to help him with his science projects, in particular his work on the DNA Resequencer._

_Latira was a planet with ties to the Genii mentions in SGA episode 5:13 Inquisition. __Hope you enjoyed the meaning of life stuff more than Weir. ;-)_


	13. Chapter 13

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

******Omega Site – PX0-999 (Terra Nova) – February 2005**

'I must say I was surprised when you asked to see me Sir' Colonel MacKenzie told the X-COM Commander as they sat facing each other across his desk. 'Especially given your previous disagreement with my colleague Doctor Heightmeyer regarding counselling of your personnel' he added.

Russell Sharp stopped looking at the cover sheet of the report he had been scanning and shrugged. 'She wanted to improve their sanity at what I believed would be the cost of their battlefield effectiveness' he replied. 'The situation here is very different' he said.

'How so?' the military psychiatrist who had been a consultant to the SGC for some years asked.

'Having the majority of them slightly deranged was a good thing given the nature of some of our missions but I can't see _any_ benefit in all this existential angst' Sharp told him. 'I want their minds back on the game' he said.

'Ah' MacKenzie replied, understanding the situation better. 'I assume that your troops are not then immune to the philosophical implications of the news we received from Atlantis?' he asked rhetorically.

Sharp sighed. 'Most of them are still getting on with their jobs but there's still too damn many moping around contemplating the meaning of existence when they should be preoccupied with winning the war' he confirmed. 'Fix 'em' he ordered as if it were really that easy.

MacKenzie smiled. 'I can't "fix" them Commander' he replied. 'They'll have to work it through themselves' he told him. 'I might be able to help the process but if you're looking for a miracle cure I'm afraid there isn't one.'

'Couldn't you give them a few pills or something?' Sharp asked hopefully. 'They're already used to taking whatever we give them without kicking up a fuss, even if it's experimental and unlicensed' he noted.

'Any pharmaceuticals that might do the job would also most likely impair their ability to function in combat far more than the occasional bout of introspection would Sir' MacKenzie told him apologetically. 'I'm sure they'll adjust quickly to our new understanding of our place in the universe' he continued more confidently, they were at least an adaptable group. 'Frankly I expected the overwhelming majority of X-COM to be jumping for joy at the idea that we were designed as a species to be soldiers' he admitted.

'I can only speak for yours truly but it was easier to see myself as keeping the barbarians from the gate when I didn't know that the civilisation we were _supposed_ to be defending didn't even exist any more' Sharp responded flatly. 'The Ancients didn't expect they were going to become extinct when they started designing our species' he noted, 'we were meant to be the guard dogs of another race not our own' he said. '_Our_ civilisation only even exists at all because _their_s collapsed and the last survivors fled to Earth looking for refuge' he continued. Refuge ironically enough from another race created as the attack dogs of their own progenitors, he thought to himself.

'And how do _you_ feel about that?' MacKenzie asked professionally.

Sharp smiled. 'Well I appreciate the cosmic joke that humanity, the race that other species have looked on for millennia as a source of slave labour, hosts and food is probably the worst possible choice for any of that they could of conceivably made' he said. 'Give us anything even close to technological parity with the enemy and we'll stomp the bastards into the ground' he stated then chuckled. 'We should all have "Born to kill" painted on our helmets I guess.'

MacKenzie smiled again. 'Perhaps it's a pity all of X-COM and the SGC don't share your dark sense of humour.'

'I wouldn't wish my psychological baggage on my worst enemy' Sharp replied before pursing his lips and looking thoughtful. 'Maybe Loki' he corrected himself after a moments consideration.

'Not Anubis too' MacKenzie queried.

'Nah, he's already loonier than I am' Sharp responded. 'Okay Colonel I'll just ask that you do your best to get their heads straight' he said. 'I'll approve any requests for additional staff you need but just remember I only want them sane enough to fight when I want them to' he continued, 'not too sane to jump out the back of an Avenger when there's less than a fifty-percent chance of coming back.'

'I'll do my best Sir' MacKenzie promised, standing up. He knew that this was only going to be a quick meeting, there was already someone else waiting outside to talk to the Commander.

'Out of interest how are they taking the news back home?' Sharp asked curiously.

'Much the same really Sir' MacKenzie told him. 'What about our offworld allies?'

'I think the Asgard and Gadmeer are still too busy trying to adjust to the revelation of their own origins to think too much about ours, but everyone that talks to the Nox is getting sick of them being so damn condescending about it' he complained. 'They were patronizing enough before but now they've added a whole heap of "Its okay, we know it's not your fault you're like you are" into the mix' he said. 'Goddamn hippies' he growled, at least the Gadmeer had the excuse that someone deliberately turned them into a bunch of wimps, he thought. 'Thank you for your time Colonel' he said, offering his hand to shake which MacKenzie took. 'Could you send in Mr Dwoskin once you're outside' he requested then went back to reading the notes on his desk.

Illya Dwoskin had been just outside Sharp's Office sitting on a chair reading the latest copy of the Economist. In particular an article on how the markets were still feeling the effect of the of the new fusion reactors starting to be constructed in several countries had him smiling. X-COM secretly owned ten percent of Energen, the new corporation which was leading the project on behalf of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, and along with other investments that should guarantee the financial security of the organisation for decades to come.

'Take a seat Illya' Sharp told X-COM's Finance Director as the Russian entered and closed the door behind him.

Putting his briefcase down next to him Dwoskin took the chair which MacKenzie had previously been using and casually leaned back in his seat. 'The IOA think we're becoming too powerful Russell' he told the Commander getting straight to the point of his visit. 'We're going to have to change the way we do things before they decide what changes they want made' he said.

Sharp sighed. 'What now?' he asked plaintively.

'The final straw was the contract we agreed with the Pangarans to supply them with ten thousand L2-A3 Laser Rifles' Dwoskin explained. 'With our profit margins it made us a little too financially independent for the comfort of our political masters and they're starting to talk about stripping us of control of much of our manufacturing infrastructure.'

'You're kidding?' Sharp exclaimed. 'A year and a half ago we were getting nothing but complaints about costing too much and now we're starting to be able to cover a good chunk of our own operating costs by selling equipment to our _allies_ they're bitching about _that_?'

'They want us cheap but they also want to keep us on a short leash Commander' Dwoskin told him. 'I have however thrashed out a deal that is better for us than what they were originally proposing.'

Russell Sharp laughed. 'Naturally' he said. 'I wouldn't expect anything else' he added. X-COM didn't just have the finest soldiers, smartest scientists and most skilled engineers and technicians Earth had to offer, it also had the most despicable and creative accountants.

'The diplomatic corps have been pushing us to try and bind our allies to us more closely so my proposal is to establish a number of interplanetary corporations staffed and run by employees from not only Earth but also Hebridan, Langara, Pangar, Optrica and any others that might be interested' Dwoskin said. 'Each contributing partner gets a percentage of the shares in the business proportionate to the initial start-up funding they put in.'

'Which helps us how?' Sharp queried.

'X-COM agrees to license production of equipment we have developed to these new companies in return for royalties on each unit sold' Dwoskin replied. 'We'll also be transferring some of our personnel to the new companies along with plant and machinery for which I think we can get an agreement for a discount on future purchases' he said. 'The Hebridan have already expressed a great interest in the idea with several of their own corporations more than willing to invest in something that grants them a nice slice of what will likely be a very lucrative pie.'

'Always plenty of money to be made in the arms industry' Sharp agreed, 'especially with half the galaxy at war' he added.

Dwoskin nodded. 'Although we wouldn't necessarily want to hand over our very latest equipment to other powers, even allied ones, the Langarans and others would pay a lot for our first generation of F-302X fighters' he noted. 'Once we've got the Tranche 3 coming into service we can then license production of the Tranche 2 which is the current backbone of our aerospace forces.'

'Always keep one generation ahead just in case' Sharp agreed.

'They would never allow us to go ahead with this ourselves but if we're just collecting a small percentage of each sale, with the majority of the profits going to a private company, the politicians should be more amiable to the idea' Dwoskin reasoned. 'Especially if the nations currently funding X-COM are receiving a share of the future dividends themselves so they can help themselves to the pork barrel as the Americans say.'

'Okay, how much of our income and financial reserves do you think you can continue to keep hidden from the IOA and the Security Council in this situation?' Sharp asked.

'At least as much as we are currently' Dwoskin replied. 'They _still_ don't know what the profit margin really is on the laser weapons we've been selling until now' he said. 'One advantage to conducting so much business via suitcases full of cash for the sake of secrecy is that it offers considerable leeway to make bank accounts disappear.'

Sharp grinned, they didn't know how much weapons-grade naquadah and elerium X-COM really had stockpiled either. The organisation wanted to make sure that even if several governments were infiltrated by the goa'uld, or another alien power, then the fight would go on regardless. Money was the fuel that kept the war going even more than ununpentium did, no bucks meant no Buck Rogers. 'Okay you're the expert, if you need me to sign anything or help you present your plan to the UN let me know.'

'Thank you' Dwoskin replied. 'I have already run up a preliminary proposal to establish an interplanetary defence conglomerate before we move onto other sectors' he said. 'We cannot really set up a corporate headquarters here on Earth but I believe the IOA would prefer it to be close to home nonetheless.'

'Heliopolis?' Sharp asked. The United Worlds met there and the planet was well within the borders of the Tau'ri Protectorate.

'I was thinking we expand our Cydonia Base' Dwoskin replied. 'We have already shifted much of our manufacturing base there and there is a certain poetry in having a defence company based on a world named for the god of war.'

'Mars was a Lantean Naval Officer who fought against the Wraith you know' Sharp told the Russian. 'They actually won quite a few battles thanks to their technological edge but numbers and a lack of killer instinct beat them in the end.'

'I hadn't heard that but then I spend more of my time with my nose in a ledger than I do reading the update reports from Atlantis' Dwoskin replied. 'How do you feel about "Mars Security and Defence Corporation" as a company name?' he suggested.

Sharp considered that for a second. 'Cut it down to MarSec Corporation' he suggested. 'If you want an idea for a corporate logo then Mars in his war chariot being pulled by Phobos and Deimos would be classy' he opined, 'especially with a corporate motto underneath.'

Dwoskin laughed. 'How about "Marsec: Who do you want to kill today" or perhaps "Marsec: Just Kill It" instead' he jokily suggested in turn.

'Just get something profound translated into Ancient' Sharp advised.

'In that case may I suggest a Russian proverb' Dwoskin replied. 'It goes "Eternal Peace lasts only until the next war".'

Sharp looked at him. 'If you people were a little less fatalistic you'd drink a lot less vodka' he told the man. 'On the plus side that motto might help sales during peacetime so go for it' he agreed.

**Latira – Pegasus Galaxy – February 2005**

John Sheppard waited until he was sure that all the aliens that were going to come walking out of the ocean had done so before he moved his cloaked puddle-jumper into a good firing position. In the shallow waters just offshore he could see the submerged craft they had come from waiting on the seabed for their return and all he had to do now was take the sucker out once the grunts sprung their ambush.

The small coastal town which the hostiles were advancing into was a trading port which serviced the larger communities inland. In agreement with the Latiran government and its Genii allies it was now the only one in the region which was still populated by more than a handful of residents. If you want to catch a tiger the easiest way is stake out a goat and let him come to you, with the townsfolk here being the bait to draw the predator in.

At the insistence of Elizabeth Weir the people being used to lure in the Aquatoids were strictly volunteers. Many of them were locals who had lost friends and relatives to previous raids that had taken place against their community and others up and down the coast and they wanted a modicum of revenge. Additionally almost a quarter of the population were now in fact Latiran soldiers disguised as civilians, with a small number of Genii Special Forces mixed in. This wasn't going to be their fight however, they had agreed to put their faith in the Terrans, both trusting that the Children of the Ancestors knew what they were doing and having been convinced by a demonstration of just how powerful their weapons were.

Latira was not a very advanced world. Like most in Pegasus technological progress had been stunted here by the Wraith habit of destroying every industrial society that emerged as a potential threat and their best weapons were simple muskets and a handful of more modern rifles given to them by the Genii. They had previously tried themselves to fight the monsters that emerged from the sea but the few survivors of those skirmishes had soon confirmed the futility of it. The weapons wielded by the foe were devastating far beyond anything they had seen even the Wraith use so you were better off just running away and hoping you weren't the slowest.

Running away was in fact what the vast majority of the people in town had begun doing as soon as they heard the warning being shouted by those who had been watching the shore. For their part the invading creatures having been through this before, and heedless of the puny threat offered by these primitive descendents of the hated Alterans, gave chase. They intended to capture as many humans as they could and perhaps kill a few more, both as a demonstration of their power and for the sheer enjoyment of it.

One of the Genii Officers had decided not to flee with the Latirans but he had ordered his men to pull back and let the Terrans handle this. Acastus Kolya wanted to get a proper look at this new enemy and he also wanted to find out if the "Children of the Ancestors" were really as skilled and dangerous as Tyrus had been making out in his assessment reports on their capabilities.

Wearing the rough clothes of a local dockworker Kolya reached into an oversized pocket and drew his service automatic before finding a place of concealment behind some stone steps that led up from the cobbled street he was on to a small warehouse. Ideally he would have been carrying one of the oversized lever-action triple-barrel rifles his people had designed for use against the Wraith but those things were a very long way from being easily concealed so the pistol was about as good an option as was available. Pulling back the slide to chamber a round the Genii soldier gingerly looked out in the direction he assumed the aliens would be coming from and keeping his breathing steady and his nerves calm he waited.

When he saw one Kolya was not impressed. It was short with a disproportionately large head and webbed hands and feet. Green in colour the skin of the thing reminded him of a frog, not surprising given that it was an amphibian, but its features at least were suitably chilling with beady red pupils set in large eye-sockets and sharp teeth that were clearly those of a predator. Three of the things carrying oddly-shaped weapons were simply striding up the road at a fast pace while looking around, presumably for anyone who might have chosen to hide instead of flee.

If there had only been the one of them Kolya might have decided to put a few rounds into the creature himself but three-to-one odds weren't good, especially when he didn't know how fast they were, the power of their weapons or even whether they were good shots. If in doubt, let the Terrans find out, he decided to take as his motto for the day, and he was interested to see how the new residents of Atlantis were going to do this.

The Genii soldier did not have to wait long, and he had to admit afterwards that as an ambush technique making yourself invisible, letting the enemy walk right by you and then shooting them in the back had a certain style. It was also pretty funny to watch, albeit entirely lacking in honour Kolya decided as a pair of armed Terrans suddenly appeared out of thin air a couple of dozen paces behind the unsuspecting aliens and fired the electrical discharge devices fitted to their rifles into two of them before riddling the third with holes from their lasers before it could react.

The most experienced officer as regards ground combat Captain Jake Gaston, commanding the operation for that reason, had deployed his troops in such a way that he was confident they could have still effectively dealt with the opposition even if the things had proven to have technology that could see through the personal cloaks. As it was however this mission was proving to be a complete cake-walk given that the Aquatoids had demonstrated no such ability and they were caught completely off-guard by the ambush more than half of them gunned down before they even knew they were in a fight.

The moment that Gaston had given the order to open fire Sheppard had added his own contribution to the wholesale ass-kicking of the poor unsuspecting aliens when he de-cloaked his jumper, activated his shield just in case and then fired a pair of drones into the enemy submersible waiting in the shallows. Originally designed in the dim distant past for use against this self-same foe the advanced guided missiles performed exactly as intended, making the transition from air to water with an almighty splash, impacting the top of the target vessel and punching straight through the hull.

The energy from a small secondary explosion inside the craft exited the Aquatoid ship via the holes the drones had left, throwing up a jet of water from the surface. Sheppard couldn't imagine that had been the engines or whatever the thing used as a power-plant going up because he would have expected something more spectacular but he still expected to be receiving a few complaints from McKay and Zelenka later for destroying something in there they would have liked to take apart rather more carefully.

Wanting to take as many live prisoners as possible made finishing off the Aquatoids a more lengthy process than it would have been otherwise but as more and more X-COM troopers brought their weight in non-lethal firepower to bear on an ever dwindling number of the enemy the battle such as it was became a near walkover.

Underwater it would have been a very different situation, for one thing X-COM lasers, zat'nik'tels and plasma weapons wouldn't have even worked, but on land it was becoming quickly apparent that the Aquatoid's own personal armaments had a serious drawback. They were powerful certainly, in fact in terms of lethality they proved in testing later to be more deadly than even elerium based plasma weapons, but they lacked one ability that would have really helped a lot in this kind of short-range, vicious engagement, the Aquatoid's sonic pistols and rifles were unable to fire fully automatic.

'Pin them down!' Sergeant Nash bellowed at the rest of his squad as they moved to flank and surround a pair of Aquatoids who had been trying to fight their way back to the sea, unaware that their transport away from here was already disabled, and were now crouching behind a stone well in front of a public building of some kind.

With half a dozen troopers rapid-firing the zat'nik'tels fitted to their L2-A3 and P3-A1 rifles at them the aliens were simply unable to move and couldn't even stick their heads up, although they occasionally tried to blind-fire with their rifles in the vain hope of hitting something.

Originally the Aquatoids had been formed into six small squads, each with three members, but after only a couple of minutes fighting this was the only one left which had more than a single member that wasn't already dead or unconscious. The third of the aliens who had originally been in this group was lying on his back further up the street with a smoking crater in his chest from a plasma hit, maybe they could bring it back for questioning in a sarcophagus maybe not, but it would give the geeks something to dissect at least if not.

Moving up under the cover-fire of the other troopers Nash reached a position where he was close enough to pitch a goa'uld shock-grenade at the enemy and he was interested to see if it was going to work. Seeing as how they didn't know if they would ever get such an ideal opportunity to test different weapons against these things in the field the troopers had been requested to try out various armaments. This had resulted in two Aquatoids being shot with Wraith stunners (partially successful, it took more than one hit to work), one shot with a Tollan stun-pistol provided by Travoc (the alien dropped instantly but for some reason convulsed on the ground for around thirty seconds afterwards), three were rendered unconscious at once by a Sectoid stun-bomb which was fired at the one in the middle and one had his head blown off his neck by Rodney McKay's prototype gauss-rifle (the recoil also caused a shoulder-injury to the user which Medic Eitam had to fix with her Goa'uld Healing Device).

'Catch' Nash yelled out before he pitched the grenade at the two aliens, setting the electronic fuse on the device so it should go off just as it arrived. He thought he was far enough away not to be affected himself but in case he was wrong he squeezed his eyes shut and put his hands over his ears before the grenade went off.

The Aquatoids seemed disorientated for a moment, one of them getting up and staggering away from the well in distress but they certainly weren't knocked out. Taking advantage of the situation however the alien now in the open was stunned with a zat'nik'tel by one trooper and then Nash sprinted over, stun-baton in hand, and gave the other one fifty-thousand volts before it could recover.

In Acastus Kolya's report to the Genii Leadership later he wrote that he had to concur with the assessment of Terran military technology that they were extremely well equipped, and seemingly competent in the use of their weapons, but he would need to see them in action against a better prepared foe in less advantageous circumstances to properly evaluate their soldiering abilities. Of the Aquatoids he wrote that their weaponry was not suited to the engagement which was fought but that the small number of injuries which they did manage to inflict on the X-COM troopers indicated they were capable of inordinate physical damage with the sonic energy shattering bones and rupturing internal organs.

Overall despite a few casualties who had to be dosed with painkillers and stuffed in a sarcophagus for a day or two to heal it was an easy victory for X-COM, unfortunately however the Aquatoids were great believers in revenge. After millions of years of plotting and planning to finally rid the universe of the Alterans and their bastard offspring they weren't about to accept any defeat with good grace.

While the Terrans began to ship their comatose prisoners back home, and started to examine the crippled submersible now in their possession, hundreds then thousands of stasis chambers in Aquatoid bases hidden throughout the galaxy were starting to open as the original owners of both Pegasus and the Milky Way defrosted their best soldiers ready for the fight to come.

Meanwhile in the old Aquatoid city-ship of T'leth a great mind stirred and began to reach out to the creatures which had once been created to rid these stars of the old enemy and would now unwittingly serve against this new one. The Wraith Queens didn't even know they were being manipulated as they collectively decided to end the old feuds and competition for resources between the clans and united against the enemy who had already destroyed many hives and who they now all fervently believed was their ultimate enemy.

If popcorn had existed amongst the Ascended Ancients they would have all been sat around munching buckets of the stuff as riveted spectators. Normally disinterested in the affairs of mortals for the most part they were all now gleefully waiting to see if the Terran subspecies of humanity was going to live up to their high expectations, perform the job they were created for, and beat the living snot out of two species that quite desperately deserved it.

**Arkhan's World – Milky Way Galaxy – February 2005**

Brigadier-General Jack O'Neill was still trying to get used to the idea that Harry Mayborne had apparently set himself up as ruler of this planet after "retiring" here, but now standing with Carter next to the craft Teal'c had found hidden in the forest his credulity was being even more sorely tested. 'You think it's a time machine?' he asked doubtfully.

Carter shrugged. 'Maybe, I mean if anyone could build one I guess it would be the Ancients' she replied. 'We know they'd dabbled in technology related to temporal physics, the time-loop machine we found on P4X-639 for example, and we also know that time-travel is physically possible because we've done it ourselves when the stargate spat us out in the nineteen-sixties' she said. 'The text carved on the stone columns Maybourne showed Daniel does seem to add a little credence to the story too' Carter continued. 'Teal'c and Andianov at the village, Maybourne insisted on at least a couple of them enjoying his hospitality and I didn't have anyone that needed shooting at right now' she explained.

'Carter, this thing is a Puddle Jumper' O'Neill pointed out, reaching out to tap the side of the thing. 'We've seen pictures sent back from Atlantis' he continued, 'they've got quite a few of these and I can't remember ever reading a report that mentions they can travel in time' he noted sardonically. 'Space travel yes, atmospheric flight yes, underwater even, but nothing about time travel.'

'None of the Atlantis gate-ships had one of the devices we found in the back of this one' Carter told her commanding officer. 'I'm hoping we can get this ship back to the SGC so a team can examine the device properly before we think about using it which is why I requested you to come here.'

'Because you think I can fly this thing?' O'Neill asked.

'You're a qualified pilot and you carry the ATA gene required to use Ancient technology Sir' Carter replied. 'Plus you have been complaining you don't get enough time in the field these days' she added.

O'Neill couldn't help but agree with that last part, running the SGC was not enough Stargate and too much Command. 'Have you checked it still works?' he queried.

'Yes Sir' Carter confirmed. 'I had a hard copy of the manual the Atlantis team wrote up for one of these printed out and sent to me earlier and all the systems seem intact and the battery still has plenty of charge left' she said. 'Before we use it on a mission we might want to add a naquadah reactor and an electro-plasmic shield like they did to the Atlantis jumpers but it but it should fly.'

'What about the supposed time-doohicky?' O'Neill asked. 'And what makes you so sure we're going to be using it anyway?'

Samantha Carter grimaced. 'If it's all the same to you I'll let Daniel explain that one' she replied. 'He's still over at the ruins Maybourne showed us translating more of the text.'

'Oh this sounds like it's going to be a good one' O'Neill said with a sigh, following Carter away from the ship and wondering if he should have just caught up on some paperwork instead.

It wasn't all that far to the old ruins which were near the abandoned naquadah mine. This planet had once been ruled by Ares, and was still technically within the borders of his domain, but he had abandoned it centuries ago once the mine was played out. The local population had long avoided the place of their former enslavement which was why Harry Maybourne, AKA "King Arkhan" was able to spend so much time among the ruins translating the Alteran writing carved on the various stone columns dotted around the area. Today it was Daniel Jackson doing the translating, jotting passages down in his notebook as he went, and he was still trying to adjust to the fact that he had already found his own name mentioned three times.

'Having fun among all these ancient ruins Danny?' O'Neill called out to him as soon as he and Carter arrived.

'Hey Jack' Jackson replied, finishing what he was writing before looking up from his notebook. 'They're not ancient' he said.

'Daniel I know Ancient writing when I see it' O'Neill responded, pointing to the nearest column which was covered in the stuff.

'Oh it's _written_ in Ancient' Daniel agreed. 'It's just that the ruins aren't actually ancient in the sense of being particularly _old_' he continued. 'This text was only carved about two centuries ago' he said. 'And yes we really wouldn't normally expect anything that recent to be written in a language quite this old.'

'The locals don't use it?' O'Neill asked.

'No' Daniel replied. 'From what I can tell this text is actually a recording of the history of this planet which was written by someone that travelled into the future, made a note of what had happened came back and wrote it all down' he said.

'Maybourne found it and then used the information to pretend to be some kind of prophet or seer' Carter told O'Neill. 'He kept getting it right so eventually they made him King.'

'To be fair he seems to have done quite a good job and the people regard him as a fair and just ruler it seems' Daniel commented. 'He's modernised their agriculture, opened up trade links with other worlds, organised the building of roads and aqueducts...'

'As well as spent a lot of time sitting on his ass being fed grapes by serving girls' Carter interrupted less approvingly. 'I think if it wasn't for Queen Aikaterina keeping him in line they'd be concubines not servants for that matter.'

'_Queen_ Aikaterina?' O'Neill repeated, smiling. 'She's come a long way from being a slave hasn't she' he observed.

'Mother to the "Crown Princess" and expecting another child' Daniel told him. 'There's a reference to "Good King Arkhan the Third" over there so I guess the dynasty lasts for a while' he added, pointing to one of the columns which recorded future events.

'Do I get a mention?' O'Neill asked jokingly.

This time both Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson grimaced. 'Yes' the latter confirmed. 'You're mentioned in a passage that deals with a war that begins a few years from now...' he paused. 'And you're mentioned along with the rest of us as being here in the past.'

O'Neill groaned. 'I don't want to go to the past again' he complained. 'It was bad enough last time.'

'It's not like we were stuck in 1969 very long Sir' Carter pointed out.

'Teal'c in tie-dye is something that'll stick with you forever' O'Neill responded, shaking his head sadly.

'Normally I'd argue that we shouldn't go interfering with the timeline but since it looks like we already did then it would actually be interfering if we didn't' Carter told him, hoping that made a little more sense out loud than it did in her head.

'We've actually heard something about the owner of that time-ship before' Daniel told O'Neill. 'It says on the column there that his name was Janus and that he was the leading scientist on Atlantis before the Ancients evacuated the city' he said. 'That was ten thousand years ago of course but with a time-machine available him being around millennia later isn't too hard to explain.'

'Janus was the scientist who thought that his peoples ill-advised poking of the Aquatoid base on Lantea was the cause of the strange subspace signals Atlantis was detecting' Carter noted. 'We're fairly sure now he was completely right but nobody at the time believed him' she said. 'From the records they pulled out of the Atlantis database and transmitted back to us we think he was their top scientist if one considered a little radical.'

'The more we learn about them the more we've determined that the Ancients weren't typically big fans of radical thinkers, or those who wanted to change things quickly' Daniel interjected. 'They preferred the slow and steady approach which is why their technological progress was generally so slow' he said. 'During the war with the Wraith they were forced to develop new weaponry quickly but it wasn't something they were comfortable with and the outcomes were often poor because they weren't in their element when under pressure to produce results fast and couldn't spend a century or two running test evaluations.'

'So you're saying this Janus guy was kinda an unancienty Ancient?' O'Neill asked.

'That would be one way to say it yes' Daniel replied in the affirmative. If you were prone to inventing new words that is he thought to himself.

O'Neill frowned. 'So what exactly does it say on there we do?' he asked. 'In the past I mean.'

'Do you want the Readers Digest version?' Daniel asked.

'That would be nice' O'Neill told him.

Daniel Jackson took a deep breath. 'We take the ship we found, travel back two hundred years and meet Janus' he began. 'Then together we pick up a ZPM he knows about, travel back to the present, go to Atlantis and give them the ZPM' he continued. '_Then_ we travel back ten thousand years and rescue Doctor Weir who for some reason I can't quite determine is trapped on Atlantis in 8000BC.'

'Oh is that all?' O'Neill asked wryly.

'No, there's also a message to bring a set of really good masonry tools and a crate of whiskey with us to give to the person that had to pound all that into the column' Daniel replied. 'Seriously, it says that' he added in response to O'Neill's doubtful expression.

O'Neill rubbed his chin and then turned to Carter. 'Assuming this isn't all some elaborate practical joke you've all cooked up with Maybourne I'll give you my office, my parking space at the SGC _and_ let you have an extra two weeks of paid vacation this year if _you_ try and explain and get approval for this insane idea from General Hammond and the IOA instead of me having to do it' he told her seriously.

'Not even if you offered to throw in a promotion to full Colonel as well' Carter told him flatly.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

_James MacKenzie was a military psychiatist who consulted for the SGC. I couldn't see all the revelations coming back from Atlantis not having an effect on morale so even Sharp has been forced to pay a little more attention to the mental well-being of his troops. __Illya Dwoskin the X-COM Finance Director is the man that keeps the organisation financially solvent. It says a lot for the way they do things that in-game the monthly budget appears to be delivered by a suspicious looking guy carrying a briefcase full of cash! Marsec is a defence company which features heavily in both X-COM: Interceptor and X-COM: Apocalypse. They produce quite a lot of the armaments you use in both games and here they're being founded as a interplanetary conglomerate. Another company that features in X-COM is Energen who run fusion power plants. Here they're being set up by the IAEA to construct and build the new fusion reactors being built on Earth (these are actually based upon Eurondan technology but this is of course secret)._

_____The Aquatoid submersible vessel featured here is a Battleship, a type often used for large-scale raids against coastal settlements. This one is carrying a crew of 21 and I've had 3 of them stay with the ship while the others attack the town. Aquatoidsthemselves aren't great soldiers, you take take them out with Harpoon Guns easily enough in the game but the other races you fight against in X-COM: Terror from the Deep are much, much tougher. __Acastus Kolya is a Genii soldier (a very ruthless and fairly competant one). In Stargate Atlantis he was a long-time enemy of the expedition but with the Genii allied to the Terrans he's just an observer. __The sonic weapons used by the aliens in Terror from the Deep are more lethal per shot than the plasma weaponry seen in the first X-COM game but as a major drawback the magazine sizes are smaller and they cannot fire fully automatic. To give one example the basic Sonic Pistol causes half again as much damage as the Plasma Pistol but you lose the ability to "spray and pray" at long range or put a three-round burst into an enemy at point-blank._  


___Arkhan's World was where Harry Maybourne ended up when he retired. It later transpired in SG-1 episode 8:13 It's good to be the King that he had managed to become the ruler of the planet in large part because he was able to translate the writing on some ruins he found. __The Time Jumper (a puddle jumper with a time-travel device fitted) was an invention of Janus who actually made at least two of them (without permission from the Lantean leadership it must be said, not that he didn't have a track record of carrying out unauthorised research). Another Ancient device the SGC had encountered previously was the Time Loop Machine on P4X-639 and SG-1 had actually traveled back in time before in episode 2:21 1969 so finding a time-machine wouldn't be regarded as nonsensical, simply surprising as hell!_

___It'll all make sense in the end honestly!_  



	14. Chapter 14

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

_

* * *

_

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – February 2005**

'Doctor Beckett. What exactly do you mean when you say that there is no point in interrogating the majority of the prisoners we took?' Colonel Vaselov asked the expeditions chief medical officer who was sat a few places to his left around the conference room.

'What I'm saying Colonel is that we seem to have accidentally lobotomised most of the Aquatoids we captured on Latira' Beckett replied. 'Specifically those which were struck by zat'nik'tel discharges' he explained. 'The pair which were disabled by Wraith Stunners seem perfectly okay, and the one which was struck by the Tollan weapon appears to be gradually recovering, but the rest have severely impaired higher functions.'

'Since when does a zat cause that kind of damage?' Major Sheppard asked in confusion. 'We've used them against several different species without ever seeing that kind of effect' he noted.

'None of the races we've employed zats against before had a device implanted in their brains like these Aquatoids do' Beckett replied. 'My autopsy found one inside the skull of every alien corpse I dissected and an MRI scan confirms their presence in all of the prisoners as well' he continued. 'Rodney has examined the ones I removed from the cadavers and knows more' he said.

McKay nodded. 'It's a very interesting piece of technology really' he said. 'Basically an partially organic computer-chip which is connected to several different centres of the Aquatoid brain and which probably allows a sort of artificial version of telepathy amongst other functions we'll need to determine' he said.

'Artificial telepathy?' Elizabeth Weir queried.

'They don't naturally possess any psionic abilities' McKay replied. 'We know from records we've retrieved concerning the Alteran/Aquatoid war that this disadvantage was one of the reasons they lost so my guess would be that the Aquatoids that fled to Pegasus were working on a way to replicate through technology the abilities which the Alterans had begun to evolve naturally.'

'We know they genetically engineered the Wraith to have psionics' Beckett noted. 'Two parallel lines of research perhaps?' he theorised.

'We didn't come under psionic attack on Latira' Sheppard pointed out.

'And I have not felt their presence as I sometimes do those of the Wraith prisoners' Teyla added.

'For most of them their abilities might not amount to much more than a certain degree of resistance to psionics' McKay explained. 'The Aquatoid we think was the leader might have been stronger on the psi-power scale but one of the troopers fried out his chip with a zat'nik'tel discharge so that's just an educated guess' he said. 'It's possible that he was shot right at the start of the fighting so he never got a chance to do much more than think "That hurts" before his brain implant shorted out and instantly lobotomised him.'

'It would have been more humane to just kill them' Weir observed, she didn't like the idea of turning sapient creatures into vegetables, even if only by accident.

'Perhaps, but I am far more annoyed by all the valuable intelligence we have likely lost' Vaselov said bitterly. 'Can we expect to obtain much information from the prisoners who were not subjected to zat fire?' he asked McKay.

'Some, but not much' McKay told him. 'We also lost the opportunity to interrogate the aliens we think were the ships engineer and navigator because Sheppard there turned them into smears on the submersible's bridge with his drones.'

'Hey don't blame me because drones don't have a stun-setting' Sheppard defended himself. 'You said to avoid blowing up the part that looked like the engines and I needed to stop it getting away somehow.'

Weir wasn't in the mood to hear them start bickering so she gave Sheppard a look that told him so before turning to McKay. 'Have you made any progress examining the craft yet?' she asked.

'Hey we're good but we're going to need more than a couple of days to get to grips with a whole new set of technology Elizabeth' McKay replied. 'We're still bringing back sections of the hull and I will say that judging by how difficult it was to carve the thing up into chunks small enough to fit through the stargate we'll definitely want to replicate the material they build from' he said.

'Yellow plastic?' Sheppard queried.

'It's a ceramic polymer' McKay responded, rolling his eyes. 'Based on preliminary tests of its properties the number of possible applications for the stuff is just staggering' he gushed enthusiastically.

'Military applications?' Vaselov asked.

'Well for one, if our next-generation of armour plate isn't a laminate of this ceramic polymer with our existing trinium/cydonium alloy I'll eat my weight in citrus fruit' McKay replied. 'It's incredibly strong for its weight.'

'Could our budget actually stretch to that much citrus fruit?' Sheppard asked deadpan.

'We'd have to cut back on the order for F-302 spares I'd think' Beckett played along.

'Oh, har de har har' McKay responded sarcastically, crossing his arms. 'You're not exactly skinny yourself Carson' he pointed out in retaliation.

'My BMI is better than yours and also in my own defence I _do_ come from the country which invented the fried Mars Bar' Beckett replied sadly. The Scottish diet was largely responsible for them having the world's second highest obesity rate after the United States.

'And golf' Sheppard added. 'Not that that's at all relevant it's just that I've been trying to improve my drive recently' he said.

'Yes, one of my people thought you were launching the golf-balls off the tower into the sea as some kind of ritual sacrifice' Teyla told him. 'They also said you seemed quite devoted' she added.

'They should see me practice my putting' Sheppard replied, miming his golf grip in front of him and putting an imaginary ball.

'How goes the research into the enemy's sonic weaponry?' Vaselov asked McKay.

'We've hit a minor stumbling block there' McKay replied with a shrug.

'Which is?' Weir queried.

'The power source for their technology' McKay answered. 'It's... weird' he said.

'Weird?' Sheppard repeated.

McKay sighed. 'The Aquatoids don't seem to use naquadah, or elerium, or nuclear fusion or anything remotely conventional to power their devices' he said. 'All their technology seems to be based on a very strange alloy which radiates energy.'

'You mean like a radioisotope thermoelectric generator?' Vaselov asked. 'The Soviet Union developed several types for the space program and other projects' he explained to Weir.

'No, it's not fission' McKay replied. 'To be honest I haven't got a clue as yet _why_ it generates power it just does' he admitted. 'We determined that gold of all things makes up the majority of the substance, along with some kind of organic matter, but beyond that we're scratching our heads and hoping that the Tollan or maybe the Asgard can figure it out' he continued. 'In terms of power-output it's roughly an order of magnitude above a fission reactor the same size which isn't too shabby at all.'

'What does Travoc think?' Weir asked.

'He thinks the Tollan might need to modify their laws of physics again in order to fit Zrbrite into them' McKay replied. 'Oh yeah, forgot to tell you. We're calling it Zrbrite now' he told the others. 'Zelenka called heads when we flipped for who got to name it which is why it's not McKaybrium.'

'So their engines run on this stuff too I guess?' Sheppard reasoned.

'Right' McKay confirmed. 'We've got a better idea on how they work than we do on Zrbrite at least' he said. 'They're not completely different in principle to a Hebridan Ion Engine, just adapted to effectively propel a craft underwater too' he continued. 'The sub that Major Sheppard knocked out had eight of these Ion Beam Accelerators and it's a good job we didn't try and catch one underwater because it would leave a puddle-jumper or any Earth built submarine standing.'

'You're sure these things can fly too?' Sheppard checked.

'Yes, I'd estimate the vessel we recovered could reach hypersonic speeds in the atmosphere' McKay told him. 'It probably wouldn't handle as well as an aircraft which was better optimised to atmospheric flight but you'd need an F-302 to chase it down.'

'Armament?' Vaselov wanted to know.

'It carried what appears to be a very, very large version of one of the sonic weapons their infantry use' McKay replied. 'I suspect it would do horrible, horrible things to anything you fired it at from a fair range but we'll need to get to grips with the technology before we could think to test it.'

'Sounds like you're going to be busy for a while' Weir observed.

'Too busy' McKay replied. 'The science personnel were already at full stretch dealing with the Ancient technology we were studying' he said, 'we just don't have the resources to throw at the Aquatoid research as well, not if you want results any time soon.'

'You're requesting more staff?' Vaselov responded.

'We've got plenty of room to house them and I doubt you'll have too much trouble finding volunteers back on Earth' McKay replied.

'That won't be necessary Rodney' Weir told him. 'The Tollan have decided they are going to send a ship here to Pegasus bringing a gate-capacitor with them now despite the Wraith and Aquatoid threat' she announced. 'We'll be able to send things back to Earth for study there very shortly' she told them. 'And go home for vacations too' she added, smiling.

'You kept that news quiet Elizabeth' Beckett responded, smiling himself.

'I wanted it to be a surprise' Weir explained. 'The Tollan Cruiser _Sher-Mal_ arrives in six days.'

'They sticking around long?' Sheppard wondered.

'I'm hoping at least until the _Daedalus_ is finished and on its way' Weir replied. 'The last update said it was nearing completion and would be assigned to us.'

'Thought they'd want to keep the first 304 Class ship close to home' Sheppard remarked.

'They have _Prometheus_, _Atlas_ and _Kuznetsov_ already to keep the goa'uld away from Earth with _Odyssey_ already under construction in the second ship yard on Mars' Vaselov pointed out. 'Once _Daedalus_ is completed and launched then they plan to immediately start work on the _Iliad_ also.'

'Then after _Odyssey_ is launched freeing up her bay they're going to start on _Aeniad_ according to the plan' Weir interjected. 'We'll soon have quite the navy... assuming we don't bankrupt the planet first' she added.

'It's the research and development costs that kill you, not the production' McKay pointed out. 'If we keep producing 304 Class ships one after another the price per unit drops fast' he said. 'Most of what we had to plough into _Daedalus_ isn't actually lost and we'll be able to refine manufacturing techniques and make incremental improvements to each ship in turn.'

'Thinking in the shorter term we still have a problem on Latira' Weir reminded everyone. 'What are we going to do about the Aquatoids there?' she asked.

'I've got a suggestion' McKay said, raising his hand. 'We could give the Aquatoids some of their polymer ceramic back.'

'You've lost me, and even earlier than normal I'm afraid to say' Weir responded.

McKay smiled evilly. 'The stuff is just ideal for resisting pressure which is probably why they make their submersibles from it' he said. 'I could build you one hell of a depth charge with a couple of hundred kilos of it and a Mark VIII warhead' he suggested. 'Assuming we can find their base on Latira and it's not on a geological fault line...'

'Boom' Sheppard finished for him, this time mining a large explosion with his hands.

Weir looked at them askance. 'Nuclear weapons are not my preferred solution to every problem we ever encounter in the Pegasus Galaxy' she stated.

'But we've done so well with them so far' McKay protested as Teyla wondered not for the first time if the Ancestors had really known what they were doing when they created these people.

**Arkhan's World – Milky Way Galaxy – November 1787**

Wishing his overloaded rucksack wasn't so heavy because the strap was already digging into his shoulders Janus turned back towards the gateship for likely the last time and sighed. He had known all along he couldn't continue to go tearing around time and the stargate network forever because no matter how careful he was not to mess with the timeline one day he was going to really screw up and might not be able to fix it. The ability of the small craft to become totally invisible and undetectable to almost all sensor technologies had enabled him to surreptitiously observe the development of societies and cultures throughout the galaxy, jumping back and forth in time to monitor their progress, but the incident with the Furlings was a clear indication it was now time to call it a day.

An isolationist race that enjoyed their privacy even more than the Nox, the Furlings had nearly shot Janus down when he had underestimated the effectiveness of their scanners and it was only decloaking and transmitting a panicked cry of "I'm an Ancient. Please don't kill me" on the subspace frequencies they used which had saved him. After the Lantean scientist delivered a sheepish apology the Furling authorities had eventually let Janus and his gateship go, albeit with a stern rebuke, and he had decided then give up his adventures and rejoin his people.

Everyone Janus had known growing up was now either long dead or had ascended. As he walked away from the gateship towards the stargate itself, intending to travel to Kheb seeking help in his own much prevaricated upon ascension, he knew from already travelling to the future of this world that the ship would be recovered in the future by humans and he wondered what they'd be like. It was clear by their possession of the gene required to operate the ship that one of them at least was likely to be the descendant of someone he had known personally on Atlantis and he idly wondered how many of the Lanteans who decided to stay on Earth had ended up getting intimate with the locals. 'Maybe Moros had a fetish for girls wearing smelly animal skins?' he theorised, chuckling to himself.

Janus decided that before leaving forever it might be nice to say hello and a final goodbye to his friend the stonemason. He had employed the man to carve the future history of this world into the columns of what was currently the largest settlement on the planet, a town near the old goa'uld naquadah mine, and had become quite fond of him and his family during their association. Janus knew that the town itself would be abandoned in a few decades, the population moving further from what had been the site of their enslavement, but the legacy cut into the marble would remain long afterwards as a testimony to what a bored Lantean genius looking for something to occupy his time with would end up doing as a hobby.

Reaching the town Janus was more than a little surprised to find that his friend was back at work carving additional text into one of the columns and it wasn't anything he had ever written out for him to reproduce. The Lantean was about to ask what was going on when he was confronted by a young woman wearing a uniform with insignia on it he had seen before and carrying a weapon of some kind.

'We have been waiting for you to get here' the woman told Janus. 'Brigadier-General O'Neill is probably in the tavern, we should fetch him and be on our way' she continued, looking the Lantean up and down. 'If that is not your only luggage I can collect the rest of it for you' she offered.

'You're one of Elizabeth Weir's people' Janus managed to say, getting over his shock at the situation.

'Yes we are but how do you know Doctor Weir?' a man wearing the same uniform queried, joining them. 'I'm sorry we should probably introduce ourselves properly first' he said. 'I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson, this is Sergeant Lyudmila Andianov and we've come from the future to find you using the ship you left behind' he said. 'Ours is parked near the stargate, I mean the astria porta.'

'You looked younger in your picture' Andianov commented to the Lantean.

'My picture?' Janus repeated, confused.

'Yes we've got a picture of you downloaded from the Atlantis database' Daniel explained. 'So how long has it been since you evacuated to Earth, I mean Terra?' he asked curiously, noting the Lanteans greying hair. 'That is in your own subjective years of course, not the ten thousand years it's been since you abandoned Pegasus.'

Janus blinked as his mind attempted to put all of this together into something that made more sense. 'I don't suppose you could explain what's going on could you?' he requested hopefully, not normally caught quite so unawares by events. Even the unexpected incident with the Furlings had been more terrifying than mystifying.

'Oh right' Daniel responded. 'Like I said before, we found your time-machine and we've travelled back to when we knew you'd left it here so we could go through with the mission we found written on the column... in the future.'

'What mission' Janus asked, still largely none the wiser for that explanation.

'The one we paid the guy over there to carve into the column' Daniel replied then shrugged. 'I think we've both got half the story and we're not really going to understand everything until we compare notes to be honest' he said. 'For a start I think you can tell us where we can find a charged potentia' he added, using the Ancient term for a ZPM.

Janus frowned. 'I thought you called them Zero Point Modules?' he replied.

'How do _you_ know that?' Daniel responded, nonplussed.

Andianov looked from one to the other. 'If this conversation is going to take as long as I think it will I am going to join Brigadier-General O'Neill and Colonel Carter in the tavern' she said, turning on her heels and marching off.

'Radio Teal'c and tell him he doesn't have to watch the gate any more' Daniel called after her. 'We didn't know for sure where you were going to go after leaving the Puddle Jumper so we left someone watching the astria porta' he told Janus before breaking out into a broad smile. 'It's really a pleasure to meet you by the way' he told the Lantean. 'Should have mentioned that earlier' he apologised. 'After this is all over we'll drop you off at the planet and time-period of your choice by the way' he promised.

Janus decided to just go with the flow. 'I was going to Kheb if you know where that is?' he replied.

'Been there' Daniel told him, nodding. 'I guess you're looking to ascend then?' he asked rhetorically. 'Say Hi to Oma from me and remember not to interfere with the mortal planes once you do ascend because they'll kick you out on your ass if you do' he warned from experience. 'Come on, I'll introduce you to the others and we'll chat over lunch.'

Janus stood there for a moment while the human led off. 'Wasn't really looking forward to retiring and becoming incorporeal yet anyway' he said eventually, laughing as he began to follow.

Five hours later Janus found himself in the co-pilots seat of the gateship the humans had brought with them and as they lurched into the sky and then performed an excessively jerky correction to their rate of ascent he decided to take the risk of provoking the Terran leader and make a suggestion. 'Are you _sure_ you don't want me to drive?' he asked again.

'I'm getting the hang of it' O'Neill replied curtly, bringing the puddle-jumper to a halt hovering a few hundred feet up.

'You should have seen him try and take off the first time' Daniel commented from the back, earning a scowl from O'Neill who had turned around in his seat to do so.

'I got us through the gate to the SGC and then flew this baby up the old missile shaft, got her all the way to Area 51 and _then_ all the way back again after the refit didn't I?' O'Neill responded, annoyed at the slight to his piloting skills. He didn't go on to mention their trip through time once they returned to this planet in the now upgraded craft, it had been very anticlimactic, one second they were in 2005 and in the blink of an eye it was the eighteenth century.

Andianov and Teal'c looked at each other, along with Daniel Jackson they had both got out in the gateroom rather than "enjoy" the experience of being in the back of the ship while O'Neill hurtled nose-first up the shaft which wasn't really that much wider than the jumper. Lieutenant-Colonel Carter had stayed with O'Neill but had confessed to squeezing her eyes shut during the ascent.

Janus looked around the cockpit, the humans had added some additional instrumentation as well as the larger devices he had seen installed in the back of the craft. 'What does this do?' he asked, pointing to a large and conspicuous new display panel.

'Shield and reactor control' Carter explained. 'We added a naquadah generator so we could improve the jumpers defensive capabilities' she said.

'More firepower too' O'Neill noted as he put the ship into a shallow dive and prepared to cloak her and dial the gate address Janus had suggested.

'Rapid-fire plasma weapons fitted inside the drone bays' Carter told Janus. 'They're compact enough that they don't interfere with launching the drones.'

'There were only two drones remaining when I left this craft' Janus recalled.

'We re-filled the magazines with drones taken from your old defence platform in Antarctica' O'Neill told him. 'They were at least five million years old and they were _still_ the same type as you were using against the Wraith only a few thousand years ago.'

'They worked, why change them' Janus asked rhetorically. 'Until we encountered the Wraith we hadn't fought a major war with anyone since before the primitive mammals we started playing with to produce you started climbing trees' he pointed out.

'Tens of millions of years of peace just isn't good for military R&D budgets I guess' O'Neill reasoned as they neared the gate, the ship now just off the ground and moving slowly so he could neatly thread the needle. 'I've cloaked the ship, you want to punch in the symbols?' he asked Janus who reached over and began keying in the gate address for the planet in this galaxy he considered the most likely to still have a ZPM.

'To which world are we going?' Teal'c asked. He hadn't yet reached the tavern in his walk from the stargate when this had been discussed earlier.

'It's a planet on the outskirts of the territory that belongs to Camulus' Carter told him. 'The Ancients had a research station operating there before they left the Milky Way for Pegasus and Janus thinks the ZPM is likely still in place' she said.

Janus turned to the Jaffa and nodded. 'I know of the facility because I once read about the experiments in high-energy physics that were being conducted there when my civilisation was at its height' he told Teal'c. 'It might not be fully charged but the program was abandoned before they could have completely drained the potentia' he said.

'And if it is not there?' Andianov asked.

'My only other suggestion in this galaxy was Proclarush Taonas but you say you've already recovered that one' Janus replied. 'Or at least you will in the future.'

'There must have been more surely?' Carter questioned him.

'Yes I'm sure there likely _are_ other potentia to be found but you've got to remember that I was born on Atlantis millions of years after my people left this galaxy' Janus reminded her. 'I was taught about Proclarush Taonas at school, it's not like I ever_went_ there or had even _visited_ this galaxy before we ran away from the Wraith.'

'It's not like even the _Ascended_ Ancients are actually omniscient' Daniel agreed as they flew into the event horizon of the wormhole.

Some years afterwards Camulus would himself discover the Ancient facility but finding it lacked a power source, and completely unable to fathom out the rest of the technology, he buried it. He did however boast to the other System Lords during a meeting at Hasara Base about discovering what he told them was an extremely valuable piece of leftover Ancient equipment while trying to impress Ra who was always interested to hear about such discoveries.

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – March 2005**

Elizabeth Weir and the other senior staff of the expedition still hadn't adjusted to the arrival of SG-1 in a puddle jumper ahead of the latest supply shipment from Earth, but the notion that they had not only brought a ZPM with them but were accompanied by the Lantean scientist Janus was more than a little hard to take. On the other hand however, compared to what Janus had just told them the rest of it didn't really seem quite so implausible.

The Tollan Cruiser _Shar-Mal_ had arrived only a few days before and the engineering team they had arrived with had still been in the process of installing the stargate capacitor which would enable Atlantis to open a wormhole to Earth once a week when SG-1's arrival with a ZPM holding a fifty-percent charge meant they could open one at will. Initially Weir had wondered if it was even worth finishing the capacitor but McKay had pointed out that it would be best not to use any of the power from the Zero Point Module in dialling the Milky because it couldn't ever be recharged whereas the naquadah-generators used to charge the Tollan gate-capacitor were easily replaced when depleted.

'Ten thousand years ago' Weir queried, looking at Janus doubtfully as the man smiled at her reaction. 'You met me ten thousand years ago?' she asked.

'From my perspective it was only fifteen years ago but essentially yes' Janus confirmed, looking around the conference room. The city was essentially much like it had been when he lived there millennia before although the Terrans and their friends had made a few notable alterations including the trio of large and unsightly Heavy Ion Cannon positioned at the end of three of the piers and the various other weapon emplacements they had seen fit to despoil the cities clean lines with.

'By which you mean you met another, _alternate_ Doctor Weir?' Colonel Vaselov queried, wondering how Brigadier O'Neill sat next to him could take this kind of thing so easily in his stride. Lieutenant-Colonel Carter was present also but Daniel Jackson and the other two members of the team were touring the city since they already knew the situation and in Jackson's case he was almost beside himself with excitement at being on Atlantis.

'Right' Janus confirmed, reaching for a glass of water and taking a sip. 'Based on what she told me, when you originally sent a team to Atlantis from Terra your presence activated all the automatic systems thus very rapidly depleting what power was left in the three potentia and causing the shield to fail catastrophically while the city was still submerged' he said.

'And we all drowned' Major Sheppard asked, none too pleased at that idea.

'Most of you at least' Janus replied, 'some of you managed to escape in the gateships you discovered in the hanger above us' he said, pointing up with his free hand. 'One of them held my prototype time-machine' he continued his story, 'and the pilot must have inadvertently activated the device and ended up back during the Wraith siege of Atlantis, just prior to our evacuation to your homeworld' he told them, taking another sip of water. 'The gateship was shot down almost as soon as it arrived but I managed to save one of the people aboard, specifically Elizabeth Weir which is of course why I know this chain of events' he explained.

McKay shook his head. 'When we got here there were still at least a few days worth of power left in the ZPM' he said. 'Plus there's a safety feature that brings the city to the surface when the shield is about to fail' he added.

'That safety only exists only because I programmed the city's computer to do that after hearing Elizabeth's story' Janus told him.

'And the additional power?' Samantha Carter asked, curiously.

Janus sighed. 'That was the reason Elizabeth needed to stay behind when the rest of us left' he responded sadly. 'I determined that if only one of the potentia was connected to the power grid when we left, the second being plugged in to the cities power system before the first was entirely depleted just over three thousand years later and then the third in turn another three thousand years after that then there would be a greater reserve left by the time you arrived.'

'So running the ZPM's in sequence is more efficient than doing so in parallel?' McKay asked.

'Yes but only marginally' Janus told him, 'just enough so that after ten thousand years there would be days of power left as opposed to minutes' he said.

'So the other me had to stay behind to plug in the next ZPM every few thousand years' Weir interjected, 'using one of the stasis chambers to accomplish that.'

'Correct' Janus told her. 'Although you do still age gradually in the chambers it should have extended your life long enough to enable you to accomplish the task' he said. 'A very praiseworthy act of self-sacrifice for the people you were responsible for' he continued. 'I was very impressed' he told Weir honestly. Janus had come to like Elizabeth quite a lot during their brief association ten millennia before. She was quite unlike most of his own people who basically at best merely tolerated his distinctly un-Lantean ways, Doctor Weir actually seemed to like his rebellious streak and had become for an all-too-brief time almost his muse as well as a friend.

'It wasn't actually me though' Weir replied. 'Not _me_ me at least' she said, hoping that made sense.

'Perhaps not, but you _are_ fundamentally the same person so you would have done the same' Janus told her before his attention shifted to Teyla who had been studying him intently ever since he arrived and the Athosian had learned his identity. 'Am I really that interesting?' he asked wryly causing her to blush with embarrassment.

'I am sorry if I have been bothering you it is simply that you are the first of the Ancestors I have met' Teyla told him sheepishly. 'At least the first who was not ascended' she corrected herself remembering Chaya. 'My people and many of the others in this galaxy have long revered you.'

'Must be like meeting Elvis in the flesh after thinking he'd been dead since 77' O'Neill observed to Colonel Vaselov.

Janus looked embarrassed now himself, the Pegasus humans of his own era hadn't regarded the Lanteans that way. Teyla sounded almost worshipful and the last living Lantean knew his people weren't deserving of that, certainly not after their complete failure to protect both themselves and their creations from the Wraith anyway. 'I'm surprised you think of us in positive terms after we lost the war and abandoned you' he told Teyla.

'It was no shame of yours to lose merely because you were not as murderous or skilled at slaughter as your enemy' Teyla replied. 'Which is not to say that being highly skilled at slaughter means that you are automatically bad people' she added quickly when she remembered that she was in a room full of Terrans who might have taken exception to such a sweeping generalisation given their own genetic proclivities in that direction.

McKay coughed. 'There's one glaring issue with your story' he said. 'We checked out all the stasis chambers in the city ages ago looking fore leftover Ancients and there wasn't anybody in any of them' he pointed out.

'Which is actually why we're here' Brigadier O'Neill spoke up. 'We're going to use the time-machine to go back and rescue Doctor Weir just before she went into the stasis the first time' he explained. 'Then we'll jump forward three thousand years, plug in the next ZPM and then do it again before making the final jump home' he said.

'There are also a few dangerous experiments and possible hazards in the city which I never had the time or opportunity to render safe before the Lantean High Council ordered the evacuation' Janus told them. 'Since I'm getting another chance at it I might as well do the job right' he said.

'Just for the record we never found a jumper with a time-machine in it either' Sheppard noted.

'The High Council made me dismantle my prototype' Janus explained regretfully. 'I wanted to use the thing to go back and defeat the Wraith, or at least bring Doctor Weir home, but they regarded time-travel as being simply too dangerous' he said. 'To be fair a few of previous experiments _did_ end badly' he admitted. If it hadn't been for the war and the desperate need to have their brightest and best working on ways to beat the Wraith Janus knew he would have never been able to get away with half the things the Council knew he'd done. For that matter with less on their plate they would have had a greater ability to monitor his activities and discover all his secret projects they didn't know anything about at all.

'They did have a point regarding time-travel' Carter observed, McKay nodded his agreement, causality was not something you should play with lightly. 'If it wasn't for the fact that it seems like our current timeline is the result of our going back and making these changes I would have advised against this course of action' she said. 'The butterfly effect means that time-travel is inherently risky and unpredictable' she noted.

'Exactly how do we know for certain you went back and rescued the other Doctor Weir?' Colonel Vaselov asked. 'Without proof is it something we should do?' he added sagely.

O'Neill chuckled as an idea occurred to him. 'Elizabeth could you do me a favour and look at the underside of the table just where you're sitting' he requested.

Weir looked at him for a moment in puzzlement then pushing back her chair she got down under the table and had a look for a moment before emerging again, now smiling herself. 'Couldn't you have come up with something better than "Jack O'Neill was here" scratched into the table' she asked.

'Well not now I can't because if I scratch anything else there with my penknife when we go back I'll have changed history' O'Neill replied. 'Right Carter?' he checked with the commanding officer of SG-1.

'Right Sir' Carter confirmed.

John Sheppard frowned. 'But if you bring back the other Elizabeth won't that mean we'll have two of them?' he asked.

Weir raised her eyebrows. 'That could be awkward' she observed. For that matter which of them was the "real" one, or were they both equally real in this timeline? What would the other Elizabeth Weir actually _do_ anyway?

'Confusing too, unless one of you goes back to dyeing her hair blond' O'Neill suggested. 'If it's alright by you we'll round up Daniel and be on our way' he said.

Feeling uncomfortable about making the request but considering it her duty as a leader of her people Teyla decided to broach something with Janus before he left. 'Rumours of your arrival have likely already spread to all the Athosians living here on Atlantis' she told him. 'Could you spare some time to meet with them?' she requested. 'It would mean a great deal to us' she said as the walls of the conference room opened so Janus and SG-1 could leave.

'I wouldn't know what to say' Janus replied, inwardly appalled by the idea. He had been well known among the Lanteans of his generation and was used to a certain level of fame and the respect, albeit sometimes grudging, of his peers but this was more like being an object of veneration. Being confronted by that Tollan engineer earlier who had a long list of questions about various city systems and was now going through the database trying to figure out what the answers meant had been a much more enjoyable experience by comparison despite the mans less than friendly or collegiate manner.

'Well think fast because it looks like they've already gathered' Sheppard told him, realising that the open space in front of the stargate now held a growing throng of Athosians all desperate to catch a glimpse or perhaps hear a few words from the Ancestor who had returned to them. 'There's a multitude out there.'

'I hope you can turn water into wine, or feed everyone in the city with five loaves and two fishes because if not they're going to be very disappointed' McKay observed sardonically.

'They think I'm here to deliver them from the Wraith or something' Janus complained. 'I'm just a scientist, I'm not even a very good public speaker' he admitted nervously. 'The Lantean High Council didn't even consider me a particularly good citizen' he continued honestly. 'I'm a _terrible_ representative of my people' he told Teyla earnestly. 'In peacetime I'd have probably been ostracised and banished from the city as a destabilising influence and a possible threat to the public good' he added.

'Just smile a lot, say a few well-meaning platitudes and denigrate the Wraith and they'll love you I'm sure' Elizabeth Weir advised, entertained by his very human-like reaction to an entirely unfamiliar situation he was deeply uncomfortable with.

Sheppard got up off his chair. 'Don't worry' he told Janus. 'I'll handle this' he promised, walking over to the balcony where he could address the Athosians. 'He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy' he said loudly.

'Lieutenant Colonel' O'Neill addressed Carter, 'we're getting outta here _right now_ before this turns into a discussion about what have the Ancients ever done for us' he told her seriously.

'They built the stargate network' McKay said before anyone else could.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

___The aliens in X-COM: Terror from the Deep had implants in their brains which gave them psionic like abilities. Having the things burned out by zat'nik'tel discharges (and consequently frying the brains of the Aquatoid concerned) seemed like like a nice irony after XSGCOM made such an effort to capture so many alive for interrogation. __Aqua-plastics is the material of choice for the Aquatoids and their associated races. Interestingly in SG-1 a ceramic polymer was developed for body armour that would resist staff-weapon fire. Zrbrite is the power-source for alien technology in TFTD and it is very weird stuff! __Aquatoid submersibles use Ion Beam Accelerators as their engines. Having these akin to Hebridan Ion Drives is just me trying to keep the merged canons together really by having them share another technology. ____In SG-1 episode 7:07 Enemy Mine it appears that one of the major bottlenecks for production of Earth warships is a shortage of naquadah. Since XSGCOM Earth has no such shortage, is also stretching out its trinium supply with cydonium and has the Martian shipyards, having considerably more 304 Class ships being produced doesn't seem too unreasonable (hope you like the names)._

_____When the Lanteans abandoned Atlantis for Earth some stayed there to try and help the humans of 10,000BC develop civilisation, others opted to seek ascension and a few more headed back out through the stargate to go elsewhere. We don't really know what Janus (and his time-jumper) got up to in the Milky Way, or when for the most part, but I can easily see him spending the next few years after leaving Earth basically bumming around while he prevaricated about taking the next step and ascending. __Kheb was a world known to the Jaffa through legend where the Ascended Ancient Oma Desala who aid others to ascend. SG-1 visited it in episode 3:20 Maternal Instinct. __We learn in episode 8:04 Zero Hour that at some point Camulus discovered a ZPM powered Ancient Device. He couldn't figure out how to make it work so he sabotaged the thing instead, leaving it as a trap for other goa'uld (the ZPM was rigged to explode, the result of that detonation being at least planet-shattering). Here it's SG-1 that recover the ZPM first... and why not I say!_

_______We learn in SGA episode 1:15 Before I Sleep that when the Atlantis Expedition first came to Pegasus it went very badly and the only reason why the timeline ended up as canon was because of time-travel, Elizabeth Weir's loyalty to her people and Janus not being the type to do as he was told. Stranded ten thousand years in the past Elizabeth Weir went into a stasis pod, the system programmed to wake her every three millennia in order to plug in another ZPM. In the series the Atlantis team found a year aged Weir who told them the story before dying of old age. Here SG-1 and Janus use his time machine to go back and solve the problem differently. __Although with a 50% charged ZPM Atlantis can now dial Earth at will it does make more sense to use the Tollan Gate-Capacitor to power inter-galactic wormholes instead because Zero Point Modules (AKA "Potentia") are irreplaceable. Although each capacitor requires a week to charge by staggering the connections they can now communicate every few days rotating personnel and sending equipment back and forth. __The Athosians and most other groups of Pegasus humans appear to worship, or at least revere the Lantean Ancients. Teyla and her people would likely regard the return of a living Ancient to their old city as some kind of sign or portent but the thought of Janus being critically embarrassed about the whole thing just struck me as funny (as did the Monty Python's Life of Brian references at the end there)!_


	15. Chapter 15

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**City of Zimar – Planet Nivevah - March 2005**

Bra'tac swept the altar of the cities temple clear with his arm, scattering relics and a silver idol of Moloc onto the stone floor before he unfurled a map over it. You could still hear the fading sounds of battle in the distance echoing down the narrow streets and passages of the city as his forces dealt with the last of the holdouts and it could be only a matter of half an hour at most before Zimar was completely under Free Jaffa control.

'Come forward and report, Tara'c' the leader of the Free Jaffa told the young officer who had approached wearing an expression on his face that spoke much for the urgency of what he had to say.

'I am sorry Master Bra'tac but we have not been able to prevent the fires set by the Imperial Guard from destroying the towns granaries' Tara'c apologised. 'Gerak is suggesting that we requisition any grain that the human slaves might be hoarding and then turn them out of the city into the countryside' he added.

'A plan that would greatly improve our situation in the short term' Bra'tac replied, 'but I fear the long-term consequences when our Tau'ri and Tollan allies found out we drove the humans of this world from their homes to starve in order to fill the bellies of Jaffa with something other than a prim'ta would not be so beneficial to our cause' he continued. 'Return to Gerak and his warriors and tell him that I regard his suggestion as tactically sound but believe it unwise strategically.'

'There are many thousands of Jaffa in Zimar who will have need of bread we cannot supply' Tara'c noted.

'In that case I will personally undertake to obtain what food is needed to sustain them until the next harvest' a woman's voice interrupted them loudly, 'starting with an order to dispatch all available Tok'ra food stockpiles to Ninevah' it added.

Bra'tac smiled as he turned to face the new arrival. 'Queen Egeria' he greeted the Tok'ra leader who was accompanied by two of her soldiers, all three wearing Tok'ra uniform and armed with both Tau'ri supplied plasma-pistols and zat'nik'tels. 'I was not aware you were coming here or I would have met you at the chappa'ai' he apologised.

'Running this campaign is a far better use of your time than that would have been' Egeria told him. 'As for the need for grain there are likely several worlds we can purchase it from using some of the naquadah the Tau'ri gave us in return for our technical expertise and technology' she suggested.

'Gave the Tok'ra you mean' Bra'tac responded. 'Not the Free Jaffa.'

'You yourself and many others in the Free Jaffa carry developing Tok'ra symbiotes within you' Egeria replied. 'We are one people now' she said simply. 'Despite what some in both groups would like to think' she added, thinking of the traditionalists on both sides who still opposed any notion of unification between the Tok'ra and the Free Jaffa.

'Gerak will ask if you give your word on this' Tara'c told Egeria.

'Then tell him that I give it' Egeria replied.

'I will tell him' Tara'c replied with obvious satisfaction. 'Long live the Alliance' he said, snapping to attention and exchanging a bow of respect with Bra'tac before turning and heading for the door.

Egeria watched the Jaffa leave and then turned to Bra'tac. 'A very serious young man' she observed.

'He was one of those fooled into following K'tano' the Jaffa Master explained. 'Learning that he had really been a pawn of Imhotep has left him suspicious of those in authority' he continued before smiling. 'I think it annoys Gerak that one of his subordinates has yet to fall under his spell.'

'Which is why you assigned Tara'c to him?' Egeria asked knowingly.

'Gerak is one our most able commanders' Bra'tac replied. 'It aided our cause much to have another former First Prime join the Free Jaffa, and many of the other Jaffa of Montu followed him boosting our numbers, but his grasp of politics is not as well developed as his military skills so I find it wise not to give him as much freedom of action as he would like in choosing his objectives and officers.'

Egeria laughed. 'You make him sound like the Russell Sharp of the Free Jaffa' she responded.

'He is not that bad' Bra'tac replied flatly. 'Your arrival was well timed' he told her, changing the subject. 'Ninevah is nearly ours, the power of Moloc is broken and much of what remains of his fleet is joining us' he said with satisfaction.

'Including those belonging to the Imperial Guard?' Egeria queried.

Bra'tac narrowed his eyes, his expression becoming darker. 'While we may be willing to accept most Jaffa that served Moloc into our ranks his Imperial Guard deserve only death from our Staff-Rifles' he said venomously. 'The willing murderers of children have earned nothing else for their actions' he stated.

'I find it difficult to disagree' Egeria replied honestly. Even by the standards of the goa'uld Moloc's mass infanticide of any female Jaffa who were born in his domain, this being organised and carried out by his fanatical elite warriors in the Guard, was an abomination. Sokar and Anubis themselves had rarely done anything so heinous and they actually went out of their way to be despicable, both for the purposes of the psychological impact it would have on their enemies and their personal inclination to be evil bastards. 'Your losses in this battle were not too severe I hope?' she asked.

'The forces commanded by Gerak sustained perhaps a hundred casualties storming the city but most will hopefully recover their wounds' Bra'tac replied. 'Mzel lost no more than two dozen of his warriors vanquishing the bulk of the loyalists who foolishly chose to face us in the open terrain between Zimar and the chappa'ai.'

'I saw the aftermath of that battle walking here' Egeria replied. 'I am no expert but to me it looked like the field artillery was decisive' she said.

The Jaffa Master nodded. 'Although the majority of our artillery remains old-fashioned Staff-Cannon the handful of Plasma-Repeater-Cannon we deployed alongside them quickly smashed the enemy ranks at far greater ranges than our Gatling-Staffs could' he confirmed. 'It is a pity the Tau'ri are not being as forthcoming in handing over those they capture to us as they were less effective weapons' he said. 'We know they have many more sitting in warehouses than they have given us' he added bitterly.

Egeria smiled. 'Don't worry' she told him, 'the Tok'ra will soon have our own production line for the new cannons running alongside our existing manufacturing' she said.

'Good news but it took longer than I hoped' Bra'tac replied. The Tok'ra had been able to supply other equipment such as the shoulder-fired light-staff-cannons the Free Jaffa forces used for some time now, and were able to readily maintain and repair most older goa'uld systems, but the most modern weaponry had been taking them some time to back-engineer. Their genetic memory was of little help when it came to understanding the workings of entirely new inventions and the battlefields of the galaxy had been revolutionised with the deployment of far more capable equipment in recent years. 'I will show you on the map how we are deployed and why Nivevah will soon be entirely ours' the Jaffa Master told Egeria.

As he began explaining how he and his warriors had emerged victorious at such a relatively light cost the mind of the Tok'ra Queen began to wander to broader concerns, not least the nature of the wars now sweeping the galaxy. It was indisputably true that the ways in which battles were fought between the System Lords had changed more in the last five years than they had in the previous five millennia. Adoption of more effective, if perhaps less honourable, Tau'ri-like tactics plus the revolutionary new armaments that Sokar, Anubis and now Baal had introduced meant that anyone who failed to keep up would be quickly relegated to the annals of history and the Tok'ra and Free Jaffa were not about to let that happen to them.

Used to thinking in a much longer-term way than their allies Egeria and other Tok'ra were also becoming concerned at what the future impact would be of the wars, even if they ended up finally defeating the System Lords. The sheer ferocity and scale of the fighting had resulted in a truly horrific loss of life among the Jaffa, millions perishing already and almost every major battle proving to be bloodier than the last. As the lethality of the weaponry used had increased the losses were on the verge of being catastrophic in demographic terms, a situation not being helped by the fact that only male Jaffa traditionally went to war. Even if the fighting ended now, and there was little indication of that occurring any time soon, it would take generations for the population to recover and in the meantime the Tau'ri and the other advanced human worlds would claim every planet in sight and breed all over them guaranteeing their dominion over the Milky Way forever.

After centuries of worrying about their gradual extinction the Tok'ra had thought they had been saved by the reappearance of Egeria but now they were almost as concerned by another issue. When the humans dominated the galaxy what were the chances they were going to find any hosts for the prim'ta now developing in the guts of the Free Jaffa? Much as they hated the goa'uld the reality was that planets full of uneducated slaves and peasants who needed saving from medical complaints that only needed some high-technology to cure were much better for the Tok'ra than worlds like Earth, Hebridan or Tollana were.

'Master Bra'tac' a Jaffa interrupted loudly, his voice echoing from the stonework. 'You are not going to believe who we found cowering in an ante-chamber' he said with barely disguised glee.

Bra'tac and Egeria turned and both looked astonished when two more warriors entered the temple partially restraining and partially dragging a third man between them. 'You do lay on the nicest surprises when I visit' Egeria told Bra'tac as the two Jaffa threw their prisoner to the ground before their leader.

'Perhaps you bring luck' Bra'tac replied. 'To some at least' he added looking down at the obviously bruised and beaten Moloc who was dripping blood onto the floor as he raised his head, an expression more of fear than defiance on his face.

'We were going to execute him ourselves but thought you should have the privilege Master Bra'tac' one of the Jaffa who had brought in Moloc told their leader.

'It is not for me to do' Bra'tac replied. 'Someone go fetch Ishta, commander of the Hak'tyl artillery' he ordered. 'His death at her hands is the most fitting end to this monster' he declared.

Moloc raised his head. 'I can help you' he gasped, before starting to cough, bringing up blood.

'Your death would be of more help to our cause than anything you could manage' Egeria told him, unable to resist sneering.

'You are Tok'ra' Moloc responded, the voice made that obvious given that an ally of the Free Jaffa was highly unlikely to be a goa'uld.

'I am Egeria' the Tok'ra Queen replied. 'You are just as pathetic now as you were when you snivelled around Ra two thousand years ago' she told him. 'We should bring in a recording device to we can record his execution' she advised. 'Seeing the death of their supposed god projected via a vo'cume should break the will of any that still serve him.'

Bra'tac nodded his agreement. 'A wise suggestion' he replied.

One of the other Tok'ra who had arrived with Egeria looked down at Moloc and then to her. 'We could remove the symbiote and execute only that not the host as well' he said.

'Moloc has been using that host since before I first rebelled against Ra' Egeria replied, shaking her head. 'The host would have been driven to madness long ago' she said. 'All we can do for him now is put him out of his misery.'

'Moloc's Empire is fallen, his lands and resources belong to the Free Jaffa' Bra'tac exclaimed, raising one fist into the air. 'Next year in Dakara!' he declared triumphantly.

'Next year in Dakara' all the Jaffa responded as one.

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – July 8465BC**

Elizabeth Weir carefully placed the dust covers over the interface console of the control room which overlooked the stargate and then took a long wistful look at the gate itself. She could have gone with the Lanteans to Earth, lived out a long life, maybe even had children but she had made her decision to stay behind and try to save her expedition and she was still convinced that was the right thing to do. All the Ancients had already left and she was the only person left in the city making her feel very alone, not surprising given she was also at the bottom of an ocean, she was on an alien planet three million light-years from Earth and it was over ten thousand years before she was actually born.

Wondering what it felt like when the stasis pod activated Weir hoped the process was as fast as Brigadier O'Neill said it was as she contemplated climbing inside the one Janus had prepared for her. It should wake her in roughly thirty-three centuries from now when her job would be to plug in the second ZPM before returning to the pod. 'Maybe if I don't feel up to it I can set the snooze alarm and get in another hundred years' she joked to herself, yawning and stretching.

Back on Earth the glacial ice had retreated from Europe and North America roughly fifteen-hundred years ago according to what she remembered from geography lessons at school so it wasn't so much the climate that the Lanteans were going to find distasteful there so much as the fact that humanity was still using stone tools. Weir was now fairly certain that the so-called "Neolithic Revolution" which had occurred roughly ten thousand years before her time was down to the arrival of the Lanteans with the development of the first cities, agriculture and the first use of metals probably due to a few helpful Ancients giving advice. Advice wasn't all they were giving them either judging from the evidence provided by the existence of Jack O'Neill and John Sheppard and their ability to use Ancient technology. A few of the Lanteans had quite clearly abandoned the old rules on mating with humans once they got to Earth leaving a genetic legacy behind that a minority of people still carried with them ten thousand years from now.

Weir crossed her arms. 'Well if charm can be inherited too then if I make it back to the twenty-first century alive I'm telling John that Janus might be his great-great-great times a lot grandfather' she decided, grinning.

'The City of the Ancients' Weir said, still amazed she was here as she looked around. The design aesthetic was very different than the ruins she had seen back in the Milky Way and she had commented on that to Melia one of the more personable members of the High Council. The amused Lantean replied that it wasn't too surprising given that it was her own distant ancestors millions of years earlier who had built the cities and structures Weir knew and architectural and fashion styles did have a tendency to change after all. At the height of their civilisation before the plague devastated their population monolithic structures and massive imposing stonework had been the Ancients way of imposing their mark on the universe but in Pegasus they had shifted away from that towards a lighter more graceful look to their buildings, often styled after the city-ship itself. The Pegasus Ancients took the conscious decision to draw a dividing line between the eras of themselves and their forebears which was why they never tried to build a copy of Vis Uban, the greatest city of the Milky Way.

'Better not have anything to drink before I go into the pod' Weir told herself, turning and starting to head off towards where she would be spending the next few millennia in extreme hibernation. 'I don't want to wake up needing to use the toilet in 7000BC' she added with a giggle before frowning. 'Why am I only this funny when there's nobody to hear it' she complained.

Weir only made it two steps before a flash of light behind her had her spinning around to see what it was. 'What in the name of...' she began, seeing a gateship now hovering in the air right in the centre of the gateroom chamber. It was facing towards the stargate but it now began to slowly rotate clockwise in the air as Weir stared at it nonplussed.

If she had been surprised before then her reaction when the gateship turned to face her was more akin to jaw-dropping astonishment because sat in the two front seats, clearly visible behind the cockpit window, were Janus and Brigadier-General Jack O'Neill.

Inside the puddle jumper Janus and O'Neill looked back at Weir. 'Maybe we should wave?' O'Neill suggested whereupon they both did. 'Someone else can explain it to her' O'Neill called back to Sam Carter and the rest of SG-1 sat in the back of the Jumper. 'As soon as we land this thing I need to go carve "Jack O'Neill was here" into a piece of furniture before I forget to do it' he said, setting the small craft down as Elizabeth Weir wondered if she was already inside the stasis pod and this was just some sort of weird cryogenic-induced dream.

'Where's Janus?' Daniel Jackson asked O'Neill after two hours worth of a very condensed version of "current" events ten thousand years from now. 'I got so carried away talking to Doctor Weir that I didn't notice he disappeared' he said. Weir was now sat alone in what would be her office, or rather her time-duplicates office trying to take it all in.

'Andianov is trailing him, not that he wanted the company' O'Neill replied looking down at the time-jumper from the control room. 'I think there's stuff he's doing that he doesn't want us seeing, or at least not messing with.'

'Maybe we should just let him' Daniel suggested. 'He seems okay, and I don't think he'd endanger us.'

'No but he might think we're too "primitive" to be trusted with certain technologies that we could really benefit from' O'Neill replied. 'I'm taking his word that some of the things he's making safe like that idiotic "Exploding Tumours" gadget need dealing with but we're in a fully functional Ancient City with an freaking Ancient with us so I expect to get more out of this situation than an extra Elizabeth Weir and a list of possible ZPM locations.'

'He offered to give us the design schematics to that personal shield McKay found and couldn't figure out' Daniel pointed out. 'He also told Sam about that prototype Wormhole Drive she's down there somewhere trying to figure out herself' he added, pointing down.

'I wanted big-honking space-guns' O'Neill declared.

'We've already got those' Daniel reminded him. 'Elerium Plasma Beam Cannon, AG-3X satellites, Heavy Ion Cannon...'

'Yeah well I was hoping for something, you know, ultimate' O'Neill interrupted him mid-flow.

'Ultimate?' Daniel repeated.

'Yeah like, press this button and all the goa'uld go away' O'Neill replied.

Daniel sighed. 'Jack if the Ancients had that kind of technology they would have used it on the Wraith' he told him.

'You're probably right' O'Neill conceded regretfully. 'There's still no way they should have lost to the Wraith though even with the weaponry we know they've got' he stated. 'I mean like that really big cannon they had on their defence satellites' he continued, 'from what we know those satellites could burn right through a Wraith Hive, cut the damn things clean in half, but instead of building a ship around one and sending it off to stomp Wraith butt the Lanteans just holed up here and gave away the strategic advantage.'

Daniel was about to reply but then he paused. 'That's actually a really good idea' he told O'Neill.

'Don't sound too surprised Danny, I have my moments' O'Neill responded with a chuckle. 'Can you imagine what a couple of ZPM powered Lantean Dreadnoughts with those beam weapons plus drone launchers as their _secondary_ armament could do to a Wraith Fleet?' he asked rhetorically. 'Especially when the Ancients had much faster hyperdrives so they could play hit and run when the numbers were too much against them' he added.

'Maybe they didn't want to risk any more ZPM's falling into Wraith hands?' Daniel suggested. 'We know that capturing some was the turning point of the war for the Wraith, it enabled them to mass produce hives.'

'Oh come on, all you need is a self-destruct to stop _that_ happening' O'Neill replied dismissively. 'In any case we know how long the shields of this city can stand up to a full-scale bombardment by a whole fleet of Hives, any ship commander worth his rank is going to kick in his faster hyperdrives and skedaddle long before then' he said before frowning. 'It's cool that I can use their gear but knowing that means I must be descended from one of these shrubs doesn't make me all that proud I've got to say.'

'Sam would kill for your psionic scores' Daniel told him.

'Yeah well, I do like knowing there's one thing my brain does a lot better than hers' O'Neill replied. 'Where's Teal'c?' he asked.

'He's in that room with the hologram of the teacher asking it about Dakara' Daniel replied. 'It wasn't just the original Ancient Capital in the Milky Way it's also considered the birthplace of the Jaffa because it was where the goa'uld first made them from regular humans you know.'

'I guess the goa'uld claimed the place because it used to belong to the Ancients' O'Neill reasoned.

'Chances are once they got out into space they were trying to find as much Ancient technology as they could' Daniel agreed. 'It's a lot easier to find it and back-engineer it than invent it I suppose' he said. 'You know another positive of you being directly descended from the Ancients is that you can argue that the System Lords have been stealing your rightful inheritance all these years.'

'You're right, those freaking goa'uld are squatting in my ancestral family home' O'Neill realised. 'Do you think I could find the deeds around here somewhere?' he wondered, looking around.

'We could look but just think about how much the Estate Taxes would be' Daniel warned.

**Valon – Milky Way – April 2005**

'Hail to the King of Battle Baby' Russell Sharp said in satisfaction as from his vantage point on a hill he watched the first salvo of artillery shells start to crash down among the advancing enemy forces five or six miles away. The 155mm and 105mm high explosive, white-phosphorous and shrapnel rounds shattering what had been until then a very impressive tactical manoeuvre by Baal's forces. 'This would be a good time for you to start rounding up all your guys that ran away earlier' Sharp advised the Jaffa Officer in the trench beside him who bore the mark of Lord Yu on his forehead.

'Our warriors did not flee, they were simply moving to a superior defensive position' the Jaffa spat back at the arrogant Tau'ri leader.

'In that case I commend your warriors for the fastest tactical withdrawal I've ever seen from an infantry unit and offer praise for the way in which half of them dropped their weapons in order to move faster' Sharp responded sarcastically. 'Look numb-nuts' he addressed the Jaffa forcefully, 'your boss requested our help to hold this fucking planet and without us you'd have lost it already so just do what you're told' he said.

'The Jaffa of Lord Yu need no help from the Tau'ri' the officer replied angrily.

Sharp looked the Jaffa in the eyes. 'Christ, you actually believe that shit you're spouting don't you?' he asked rhetorically. 'What's the name of the next guy down from you in the chain of command?'

'Changpu' the Jaffa replied, confused by the question until Sharp raised his L2-A3 and shot him with a zat'nik'tel discharge, the pain fortunately short-lived as he crumpled to the bottom of the trench unconscious.

'You there, tell Changpu he's in charge now and he needs to start gathering up those Jaffa before they retreat tactically all the way back to the stargate' Sharp issued an order to another of Yu's Jaffa. The warrior was just standing there staring at his stunned officer in dismay and wondering if he should shoot the Tau'ri in retaliation. 'Don't fuck around, just do it' Sharp added curtly before turning to talk to one of his own soldiers. After a moment the Jaffa went and did what he was told whilst beginning to reassess his previous belief that the tales of the exploits of the Tau'ri Warlord Sharp of Canada must be terribly exaggerated.

Once the site of one of Lord Yu's secret installations the main importance of the planet Valon these days was that it would make an excellent staging area for an attack on Yu's capital world. Because of this Yu's First Prime Oshu had requested urgent Tau'ri assistance in defending it while he gathered enough reserves to properly garrison the world himself. Not wanting the empire of another System Lord to collapse, especially not one which was really being run in secret by Oshu rather than his senile master, the IOA had ordered Sharp to deploy all forces he saw fit which meant the majority of X-COM Troopers based on Terra Nova were now either already here or standing by to reinforce the deployment if necessary.

To their credit Yu's army had learned enough from fighting Baal before to have dug in deep, emplaced plenty of Staff-Cannon and made it very difficult for the enemy to expand out of their initial landing zones. At least that was true at first anyway but after a few days of brutal fighting superior weaponry had begun to turn the tide of battle against the defenders and Baal's armies were now pushing out in all directions to secure the strategically important sites of the planets single large continent.

With Baal's battle-fleets elsewhere, the invasion had been via Al'kesh and Troop Transports not Ha'tak vessels, at least they weren't being blasted from orbit but the enemy was still much better equipped from basic infantry gear on upwards and Yu's Jaffa were still losing several of their own for each of their foe that fell even though they had the advantage of being the defenders.

'We'll give them another ten minutes worth of artillery then counter-attack with Hover-Tanks and Powered Armour' Sharp decided. 'Should be able to drive the sons-of-bitches back ten maybe fifteen miles easy before it gets dark' he said confidently. 'When the sun sets we'll pull our armour back to the starting line and start laying landmines in those fields there' he said, pointing to indicate a cluster of farms with a small river snaking through them. 'Rig that stone bridge across the river to blow too and position mortars to hit any fords they might use because I'll bet they'll try to flank us that way tomorrow' he said.

'They've got night-vision gear for some of their grunts these days Sir' one of his junior officers reminded him. 'What if they try and hit us tonight?' he asked.

'It's possible but I didn't have plans for this evening anyway did you?' Sharp replied with an obvious lack of concern if they did. 'They'll have a hell of a job hauling their field-guns with them at night and without their direct-fire artillery in support they won't be able to put much pressure on us' he said, turning back towards where his own indirect-fire artillery was making its mark and raising his L2-A3 to look through it's electronic gunsight, activating the zoom for a better look.

As X-COM's batteries of M119A1 105mm Howitzers bolstered by their more powerful M777 155mm big brothers rained death on the enemy Jaffa Sharp could only wish ruefully that he could win the war this way. Despite achieving repeated victories on the battlefield and the use of ever more effective means of slaughtering the enemy the truth was that Baal was winning the war and if any of the System Lords were still fighting him in more than a token way by 2006 it would be a surprise.

The losses Earth and its increasingly beleaguered goa'uld allies had inflicted on Baal had certainly slowed down his expansion. Indeed according to Tok'ra agents he was finding it near impossible to scrape up enough Jaffa to garrison a quarter of his domain, allowing the Tok'ra themselves and the Tau'ri to play merry hell with his supply lines as they had once done to Apophis, but strategically Baal was winning nonetheless.

The System Lords opposed to Baal were basically broken. They didn't have enough Jaffa to replace those who had fallen and although some of the Goa'uld had resorted to using human conscripts instead that only proved their desperation. Moreover their economies were wrecked after years of near continual warfare against Sokar, Apophis Anubis and now Baal and their already limited industrial bases were critically overstretched.

Most intelligence analysts working for X-COM predicted Lord Yu would be the last System Lord still in the fight and after he was beaten Baal would finally get around to dealing with the Tok'ra and their Free Jaffa allies who had benefited until now from not being a major enough threat to warrant Baal's attention. Some of the experts theorised that Baal might then back-stab his own allies, seeking to annex the territories of Kali, Bastet and Amaterasu but most thought that the advanced human worlds like Earth or Tollana would be the next target.

It wouldn't come to that of course, X-COM always had a few back-up plans one of which was the destruction of Baal's capital world with naquadria bombs followed by the unleashing of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons against every goa'uld controlled planet if he didn't quickly surrender. The worst case scenario was naturally evacuation to Pegasus and a rebuilding of Terran civilisation there, but the slightly less drastic option was giving the Aschen Confederation the latest goa'uld hyperdrive designs and waiting to see what happened when Baal found himself facing a society consisting of billions of humans who were advanced enough to turn Planetary Gas Giants into stars and had the sort of manufacturing capabilities which even Sokar could have only dreamed of.

Lowering his rifle having watched enough Jaffa get blown to pieces for now Commander Sharp personally doubted they would ever have to let the Aschen off the leash. Chances were that even saying it was on the cards would lead to the Tollan deciding to throw themselves into the war instead to forestall that and if there was one thing that would be likely to get Baal to reassess his plans for galactic domination it would be a proactive Tollana. Visions of their phase-cloaked warships blasting Ha'tak out of the sky with Heavy Ion Cannons, and maybe blowing ocean-sized holes in a few of Baal's worlds as a demonstration of what their UFT bombs, warmed Sharp's admittedly rather dark heart and should at least give a goa'uld as smart as Baal pause for thought he decided.

'Pity we couldn't bring in a few regiments of Langarans' Sharp remarked. Although X-COM had been helping to train and equip units made up of soldiers from the three armies of that world the Langarans didn't want their troops fighting the goa'uld until they had the kind of planetary defences which Earth or Tollana could boast, fearing retaliation from space. 'After taking bolt-action rifles up against Loki's meanest guys I'll bet fighting Jaffa would be like a pleasant stroll in the country' he joked.

'I'd rather have an Optrican Airmobile Brigade backing us up Sir' an X-COM sergeant responded. The Optrican army had very good equipment and they seemed plenty tough enough from what he knew of their war with the Bedrosians and what he had seen of them first-hand during the fighting on Langara.

'Won't be long before all our allies are in this Sergeant' Sharp told him. 'The future belongs to the human race not a bunch of fucking parasites with delusions of godhood' he declared.

The sergeant couldn't help but grin at Sharp's certainty and his earnest, "Manifest Destiny" delivery of the line. 'So what about the Asgard?' he asked.

Commander Russell Sharp grinned back. 'I'm a reasonable man' he replied. 'They can keep Ida, we'll settle for the entire rest of the universe' he announced magnanimously.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

___Tara'c was a Jaffa rebel that followed K'tano (the goa'uld Imhotep in disguise). Using the Jaffa who had been previously fooled by K'tano and who were now understandably suspicious and not easily talked into things to help keep Gerak (one of the Free-Jaffa leaders and a hard-liner) in line was a nice tactic I thought. __The Imperial Guard of Moloc are a nicer enemy for the Free-Jaffa to fight than most (less guilt for killing them). They must have been fanatically loyal to follow Moloc's ordered infanticide (including their own daughters) so it's taken a good long time to beat them. ____We learn in SG-1 episode 7:16 Death Knell that the other Tok'ra consider humans from Earth to make bad hosts because they have too much influence on the symbiote they carry (Selmak learned that the Tok'ra High-Council had been keeping things from him for that reason). Former slaves from primitive cultures just aren't likely to be as willful as humans raised free in advanced industrial societies and for that matter the former are going to be more likely to need saving from illness too. Avo'cume is a goa'uld device that works as a 3D projector incidentally, SG-1 use one to show soldiers still loyal to Apophis that he was already dead in SG-1 episode 3:09 Rules of Engagement._

_____The Neolithic Revolution occurred around about the time the Lanteans were supposed to return to Earth (which is likely why the makers of stargate chose that date) and they are likely supposed to be the ones responsible for humanity moving from being stone-age hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists living in towns. __The architecture and the style of the technology we see the Lanteans use is very different from what Ancient cities and devices looked like in the Milky Way. However they did leave the Milky Way at least five million years ago so it's not that surprising that their design aesthetic shifted in that long. I mean compare the fashions of the 1970's with today! __For a civilisation which could design and build weaponry like their Defence Satellite to also make the Tumour Creation Device (which makes exploding tumours... seriously it does) seen in SGA episode 3:17 Sunday explains a lot about why they lost to the Wraith._

_______Valon is a world belonging to Lord Yu where he had a base of some kind, it's mentioned in episode 5:15 Summit. By this point Yu is increasingly senile and much of the real work of governing his empire and fighting Baal is being done by his still loyal First Prime Oshu. __Artillery never gets paid as much attention in fiction, certainly not in television or movies, but in reality it really does live up to its old description as "The King of Battle". More combat casualties were caused by artillery in both World War One and World War Two than by every other type of weapon combined and the Jaffa still have no decent counter to it. What it can't do however of course is be of any help against fleets of Ha'tak ships which is why Baal is still winning._

_______One final thing, I'm happy to announce that the first story in the XSGCOM series has got through the first round of the 2010 Crossing Over Awards on TtH (category - Best Non-Ats/BtVS Crossover). If you've got an account there your vote in Round Two would be very much appreciated! _


	16. Chapter 16

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**Planet Dagan – Pegasus Galaxy – April 2005**

'Okay, I can see how the god-like technology, not to mention creating the human race in the first place, might lead to your race being worshipped but I'm not seeing nearly enough evidence of you trying to _discourage_ it' Major Sheppard told Janus disparagingly as the local woman continued to prostrate herself before the Ancient who had just arrived. McKay had returned to Atlantis to fetch him after being told the Daganian legend of how at the end of the Wraith war a Lantean had come to this world with the "Potentia", a ZPM, and had asked the people there to hide it and keep it safe until the Ancients returned.

'It wasn't anyway near this bad in my day' Janus protested, some human worlds had been more than a little sycophantic though he had to admit. 'Its Allina isn't it?' he asked the woman rhetorically. 'Could you please stop this, you're embarrassing me' he pleaded. Even the Athosians hadn't been this bad he thought ruefully.

'You know my name' Allina said in wonder. 'Truly the Ancestors can see into the hearts and souls of men' she continued in an awestruck tone, nervously raising her head to look upon the Lantean.

'Actually Doctor McKay told me what your name was when we were walking here from the Astrea Porta' Janus explained. Some Lanteans _did_ possess great powers of telepathy, telekinesis and other psionic abilities as their race neared ascension but he wasn't actually one of them. This was probably the reason he devoted his life towards science not philosophy and "self improvement" like so many of his contemporaries. 'Really, please get up' he requested.

'As you wish' Allina complied, slowly getting up off the stone floor of the old library. 'My people have dreamed of your return for so long' she told Janus, still unable to look him in the eyes. When McKay and the others in the first group of Terrans to come to Dagan had told her that there was an Ancestor back on Atlantis she had not truly believed them but now here he was in the flesh having proved his identity to her by demonstrating his mastery of several devices which Major Sheppard could only just barely switch on.

'I get that a lot' Janus replied awkwardly, as well as the Athosians he had also recently met a delegation from the Genii plus representatives from several worlds allied or associated with them including the Latirans and the Manarians. 'I'd better tell you that it's just me' he admitted. 'The rest of my people are long gone' he informed her apologetically. 'I'm only here because the Terrans thought it might help them locate the potentia here if I explained to you personally that it was me that told them there might still be one here on Sudaria.'

'They call it Dagan now' Sheppard reminded him.

'Yes, Dagan' Janus corrected himself. Sometime in the last few thousand years the world and its population had changed names, another reminder to Janus of just how out of his own era he was.

'You truly wish us to aid these Terrans?' Allina queried. 'To help them locate the Potentia and then just let them take it?' she asked.

'Well it's not like you're using it' Sheppard observed. Even if they found it, and it had been lost for a very long time, they still couldn't use it for anything because Dagan society was now at a basically Renaissance-era technological level after ten millennia of cullings and deliberate suppression of technology by the Wraith.

Allina frowned. 'My people were instructed to keep it safe until the Ancestors returned' she noted. 'It has been our sacred duty for hundreds of generations' she added. 'It has only been very recently that we began to search through the remaining archives to look for it ourselves.'

Sheppard made a coughing noise to attract the attention of Janus and pointed to himself meaningfully, the Ancient nodding his understanding. 'The Lanteans as a people are long gone as I said' Janus told Allina again. 'The most that is left of them besides me runs through the veins of the Terrans now' he continued, trying to hit the right note of persuasion. 'When we left Atlantis to escape the Wraith we went to Major Sheppard's world, some of us mixing our bloodlines with the humans there which is why he and a few others from his planet can use the Lantean technology which the humans of this galaxy cannot' he explained. 'My people, your "Ancestors", are about as returned as they're ever likely to be' he said.

The Daganian woman thought about that. 'So you are saying that we were not worthy to bear your children but they were?' she asked, feeling shame.

Janus sighed. 'No it wasn't anything like that' he replied. 'It was a _crime_ to interbreed with humans here' he explained. 'The Lantean High Council wanted to make sure through genetic locks that you couldn't use devices we didn't want you to, including our weapons' he said. 'After the evacuation to Terra, with the High Council soon disbanded and the old rules fell by the wayside.'

'And much screwing of human chicks and building of prohibited time-travel machines began' Sheppard interjected, smirking slightly. He himself was a direct result of Ancients getting busy with humans back on Earth back before the Bronze Age.

'There probably _are_ a few humans in this galaxy who carry Ancient DNA' Janus said. 'Not _everyone_ obeyed the law' he told Sheppard. The reason the gene was stronger and far more prevalent amongst Terran stock was simply a result of there being only a few million humans alive on Earth when the Lanteans arrived fleeing the Wraith so even a few thousand of the refugees could have a moderate effect on the gene-pool. In Pegasus conversely the handful of Lanteans who broke the rules and did mate with the billions of humans living there before the cullings began had barely caused a ripple.

Allina considered the situation. 'If the Terrans are the true Children of the Ancestors then they have a valid claim on the Potentia, especially when it is your wish that they should' she decided. 'I will talk it over with the others' she said.

'You might want to add that if they want to make sure that the _City_ of the Ancestors isn't destroyed by the Wraith then another Zero Point Module would go a long way towards ensuring that' Sheppard advised.

As Allina left them to go see the other Daganians Janus looked around the room. It was in a better state than much of the ruined complex of buildings they were in but he had visited Sudaria a few times before the fall of Atlantis and remembered how it had once been. It saddened him to see how another world had fallen so far, if not perhaps as far as the Athosians who had once lived in an advanced industrialised society but had ended up not much more than a primitive semi-nomadic culture. 'We should have done a better job fighting the Wraith' he said regretfully.

'Not your fault your species just didn't have it in them' Sheppard replied with a shrug, some of the less diplomatic X-COM element would have made a comment about the Ancients being all brains and no balls. 'So, still trying to decide what you're going to do with yourself?' he asked.

Janus smiled. 'Elizabeth keeps asking me to stay and help you out' he responded.

'Which one?' Sheppard asked.

'Both of them' Janus replied, his smile turning into a grin. 'It must be about the only thing they don't argue about' he added.

Sheppard grinned himself. 'I think it was when the one you and SG-1 rescued from the past told our Elizabeth she was gradually turning into Commander Sharp that the real venom started' he said. 'I've got to say that listening to the boss trying to justify taking the ZPM from the kids on M7G-677, and mass-nuking the Wraith, to _herself_ was just gold' he said. Watching had been hilarious. It almost verged on schizophrenia made flesh he decided.

'My Elizabeth, I mean the one we went back to get, never had to make those decisions' Janus replied. 'I don't think she thought she was someone that could' he theorised.

'Drop someone into the right, or rather the wrong circumstances, and you'll see a new side to them' Sheppard replied before a quizzical expression crossed his face. 'Okay, one question' he said. 'If you didn't want your people to interbreed with humans then why make it even possible?' he asked. 'Surely you could have fixed our DNA so it wasn't compatible?'

Janus nodded. 'We could have but the decision was taken early on that we wanted humans to see us more like parents creating children than mad scientists creating a lab experiment' he replied. 'It was also thought it would help keep our own future behaviour ethical if you were more like a sub-species than an entirely new race' he continued. 'One of the more important dividing lines between species is the ability to mate and produce viable offspring after all' he said. 'We made you look like us, you can interbreed with us so you practically _are_ us.'

'But you didn't trust the children to play with your best toys' Sheppard observed sardonically.

'Would you give someone from the Terran Stone Age one of your Coherent Light Weapons?' Janus responded knowingly. 'The Tollan are the most technologically advanced human society I've seen, the humans of Langara the most mentally developed, but even they have a very long way to go before they're at our level.'

'We're not exactly cavemen you know' Sheppard replied, more than a little indignant at the implication.

'I admit you've come a very long way in a very short space of time' Janus conceded, 'but you just don't understand how dangerous our technology can be' he said. 'A misused potentia could practically destroy an entire stellar system and when we attempted to make an even more powerful energy source for our weapons we almost did by complete _accident_' he continued. 'You know I once nearly blew up every astrea porta in the galaxy myself' he admitted, 'and the less said about our forays into weaponised nanotechnology the better' he added, rolling his eyes. 'We were smarter than you, more cautious, and we _still_ made hideous mistakes.'

A wry smile formed on Sheppard's face. 'You know if you gave that speech to the humans in this galaxy it might solve the problem of them worshipping you' he suggested.

'I'll give it a try the next time one of them asks me to bless their child' Janus replied, sighing.

'Okay, I've got to ask' Sheppard addressed him. 'How _did_ you manage to nearly blow up all the stargates in Pegasus?' he queried, intrigued.

Janus groaned. 'I had an idea for an interference signal in subspace that would make Wraith Hyperdrives explode when they tried to open a hyperspace window' he replied. 'Our own ships engines run on a completely different frequency so they would still work and we could have just hunted down any remaining Wraith Hives which had stayed put.'

'Didn't work?' Sheppard guessed.

'Oh it worked alright' Janus replied, 'as soon as I turned it on we started getting reports of Wraith Hives and Cruisers blowing up right across the galaxy' he said. 'The problem was that they arrived at the same time as reports that astrea porta were exploding too.'

'Ouch' Sheppard commented with a grimace. From what he knew a stargate exploding would yield a larger explosion than a Mark VIII warhead.

'We turned the device off and scrapped the project immediately' Janus replied. 'It was an entirely unexpected side-effect and it actually proved there was a slight error in our understanding of subspace physics.'

'Killed a few Wraith at least' Sheppard noted.

'Along with the tens of thousands of humans who were killed by the exploding stargates before we could shut down the Attero Device' Janus responded sadly. 'I'm an accidental mass-murderer' he added quietly. 'I spent years trying to figure out a solution once we knew exactly what the problem was but I couldn't' he said.

Sheppard nodded. 'Pity you didn't still use the old-style stargates here in Pegasus that you did in the Milky Way I guess' he said.

'No, it wouldn't have helped they would have exploded too' Janus replied. 'The ones here are more advanced in some ways but the basic operating principle is exactly the same regarding the wormholes' he explained.

'No I meant the way the Milky Way stargates can be turned off, or at least they could until we re-wrote their code anyway' Sheppard replied.

Janus looked confused. 'I'm sorry?' he queried.

'Oh, one of our scientists once infected a stargate DHD with a computer virus' Sheppard explained. 'We wanted the ability to turn off the gates on goa'uld planets' he explained. 'The problem was that one of the goa'uld managed to alter the virus so it began spreading from gate to gate turning them _all_ off until we managed to fix it and do something to stop it ever happening again' he said. 'I remember it because for a while I thought I was going to be spending the rest of my life flying SG Teams around the galaxy in an Avenger.'

The Lantean blinked. 'You turned off the stargates...' he said slowly. The virus must have spread via the correlative update system he realised as the implications sunk in.

'Are you okay?' Sheppard asked Janus, the scientist had just gone very pale.

Janus sank to his knees. 'We were looking at completely the wrong end of the problem' he said, voice trailing off. 'Just turn off the astrea porta and _then_ turn on the Attero Device.'

Major John Sheppard looked down at the Lantean. 'You never thought of that did you?' he asked rhetorically. 'It would have worked with the Pegasus stargates too wouldn't it?' he added.

'Yes' Janus practically whispered back, staring blankly into nothingness for what seemed like an eternity before he threw his head back and screamed in anguish.

'Oh yeah, and _we'r_e supposed to be the dumb ones you couldn't trust with the super-weapons' Sheppard observed, rolling his eyes.

**United Worlds Building – Heliopolis (P3X-972) – April 2005**

Sometimes when he ventured outside the great dome which housed the UW Building Ernest Littlefield still wondered why the hell he had ever agreed to come back to this desolate storm-ridden planet but for the most part he actually enjoyed being the de-facto governor of Heliopolis. He certainly liked it here more than he had being on Earth after half a century of involuntary exile and loneliness, it had simply been too hard to adjust to living among so many people in a society which had changed so much since the 1940's despite Catherine doing her best to help.

Sometimes the small number of archaeologists still based on P3X-972 found something worth investigating, some remnant of the age when the planet had been the diplomatic hub of the old "Alliance of Four Great Races", but mostly Ernest just found himself greeting important dignitaries rather than digging through the ruins outside. For her part Catherine desperately wanted to get back to the real action, maybe join a team working on Vis Uban but Ernest hadn't made up his mind yet and there was no way she would go without him.

Walking along a corridor towards the gate-room Ernest stopped by a mirror fixed to the wall and took a brief look at himself, a habit he had gotten into that he couldn't shake. 'Well I look a lot better than my grandfather did at my age' he observed, smiling at the thought that he was at least twenty-five years older than anyone would ever think by looking at him. Several months of weekly spells in a back-engineered goa'uld sarcophagus had given him back some of the life he had lost when first trapped here and the same treatment meant that Catherine meant that at nearly eighty-two herself she could easily pass for her late fifties. 'Damn hair didn't grow back though' he complained, wondering if they might find a cure for male-pattern baldness in the Atlantis database after the military stopped trawling through it for weapon designs.

There were less than two hundred people based on Heliopolis, half of them diplomatic or support staff for the United Worlds and the rest being maintenance crews, the small military garrison and the handful of resident archaeologists. Situated well within the area of space generally referred to as the "Tauri Protectorate" P3X-972 was nonetheless considered neutral territory which was why civilian scientist Ernest rather than a military officer had found himself "Governor" as the Earth's diplomatic corps tried desperately to make their homeworld appear less like a breeding ground for psychotic militaristic adventurers and more like the kind of planet even the pacifistic Nox and Gadmeer could have meaningful civilised relations with.

'Mister Littlefield' a voice broke Ernest out of his thoughts and he turned to see Joseph Faxon the Tau'ri representative to the United Worlds approaching. 'Have you seen the seating plan for the function tomorrow?' he asked rhetorically. 'We can't put the Tagreans next to the Tegalans, it would be too confusing' he stated, only half in jest.

Ernest laughed. 'Maybe we shouldn't have invited the Tegalans to join and saved ourselves the problem' he joked.

Faxon smiled. 'Once the Caledonian Federation and the Rand Protectorate signed a treaty of cooperation we ran out of excuses not to' he replied. 'It's easily solved, we just order everyone according to when they joined the United Worlds instead of alphabetically.'

'It's a pity we translate all the languages phonetically or we could have ordered them according to a different alphabet' Ernest responded. 'I noticed that we've started changing the signs so they're in Ancient with English translations underneath' he said.

'You know we received a few comments to the effect that the United Worlds possibly needed to look a little less like a club for the Tau'ri and their associates' Faxon explained. 'Ancient just seemed like the best choice given that nobody still uses it as an everyday language' he said. 'At least not outside the Pegasus galaxy anyway' he added, a few of the cultures there still used that script apparently. 'I assume you're going to meet the Tok'ra delegation?' he queried.

'It seemed like the thing to do in the circumstances' Ernest confirmed. 'Thought we should play extra nice even if it wasn't us that did it' he said. 'It wasn't was it?' he asked seriously.

Joe Faxon shook his head. 'From what I've heard through official and unofficial channels the Tok'ra now accept it was a rogue operation but that opened up almost as many new questions as it answered' he responded. 'The Tok'ra wanted to meet here not at the SGC because they're still extremely angry' the diplomat continued, 'not without good cause either.'

'It's up to us to keep our own house in order' Ernest agreed. 'I never trusted the cloak-and-dagger boys back in my day' he said. 'There was always something off about everyone I ever met who was with the OSS.'

'You know it's been called the CIA for nearly sixty years now' Faxon replied, smiling.

'Names change, faces change, but the same kind of people are still going to be attracted into that kind of work' Ernest stated. 'Trust me if you'd met the OSS guys involved with the original stargate program back in the 1940's you'd see they'd fit right in with the CIA, NID or any other bunch of spooks today' he continued. 'Not _everything_ changed while I was away, technology advances but human nature is a constant.'

'I should probably get back to briefing Lieutenant-General Hammond, we only took a short recess while Richard Woolsey used our subspace transmitter to call Earth and ask for an update from the IOA in New York' Faxon said, checking his watch. 'Brigadier-General O'Neill should have been here half an hour ago.'

'I'll send him your way when he arrives' Ernest offered, it wasn't like he had much to do until he met Catherine for Lunch. Despite a lot of reading and several computer courses his skill set was still generally more than little out-of-date even if he did have a résumé which included working on the Manhattan Project and a stint as one of Albert Einstein's assistants.

When Jack O'Neill did arrive from the SGC he was quickly hurried to where the meeting was taking place and ushered inside. 'Been busy saving the galaxy Jack?' Hammond asked sardonically as his replacement as commander of Stargate Command took his seat. As well as the two generals, Woolsey for the IOA and Ambassador Faxon of course O'Neill was mildly surprised to find Commander Sharp was there for X-COM and the Tok'ra were represented by Per'sus who ranked only behind Egeria herself in the Tok'ra ranks, Malek their highest ranking military officer plus the scientist Ren'al and Selmak, AKA Jacob Carter.

'Something like that Sir' O'Neill replied, he was still trying to catch up with what he had missed during his brief stint as a Time-Jumper pilot and then in Pegasus. It was amazing how much could happen in a couple of weeks and he had been delayed whilst attempting to get a grip on the current galactic situation by speed-reading reports, though given the seniority of the people here he was now starting to regret not being early.

Richard Woolsey gave O'Neill a look of reproach for his tardiness. 'And now since the Brigadier has graced us with his presence we might want to quickly go over the situation again' he suggested to the Tok'ra delegation.

'I'll run him through it if that's okay?' Jacob offered, looking to Per'sus for approval getting a nod in response. 'Look story short Jack it looks like the goddamn NID is trying to beat Baal by committing genocide on his Jaffa.'

'What?' O'Neill exclaimed.

'You should count yourselves lucky we now believe that it was a rogue element of your security apparatus which was responsible or else the Tok'ra and Free Jaffa would have broken off all relations with the Tau'ri' Per'sus stated flatly.

'Not that big a loss in my opinion but politics is outside my sphere' Sharp commented quietly, if not quietly enough. The look he earned from Woolsey for muttering that being far more venomous than the one O'Neill had received beforehand.

'I spend a few days travelling through time and visiting friends a couple of galaxies over and everything goes to hell' O'Neill commented. 'What happened?' he queried.

Jacob's voice changed as Selmak, the symbiote he carried, took over. 'As you are aware Brigadier-General O'Neill the Tok'ra developed a toxin some time ago which was lethal in the extreme for our kind' he said. 'Not even your VX nerve agent comes close to being so deadly in small amounts, only a minute quantity breathed in as an aerosol would kill a goa'uld, tok'ra or a Jaffa carrying a prim'ta in seconds.'

'Which is why we never gave the Tau'ri the formula' Malek interjected. 'Certain senior elements in your military were not deemed safe with such knowledge' he said, looking directly at Sharp.

'I prefer my WMD to come with great big mushroom clouds thanks, it's a matter of aesthetics' Sharp responded to the obvious slight. 'Anyway, we know the goa'uld can produce chemical and biological weapons like the plague Nirrti used on Hanka and I'm not stupid enough to provoke retaliation in kind' he continued. 'Even if we could produce the stuff in sufficient quantities to hit every goa'uld planet at once we'd still miss all the enemy forces in space and then they'd make us pay' he said. That kind of escalation was in nobody's interest, even when they employed nuclear weaponry X-COM was careful to limit their use to either purely military targets or ones where civilian casualties would be minimal.

'Unfortunately it appears that not everyone from your world appears to reason the same way as you Commander' Selmak responded.

'And you'll never hear a Tok'ra say _that_ again' O'Neill couldn't resist commenting. 'So why are we talking deadly poison?' he asked, intrigued.

'Because while you were in Pegasus a Tok'ra facility was raided and much of our own stockpile was stolen' Selmak replied.

'By who?' O'Neill asked.

'By the Tau'ri' Per'sus answered. 'Although their means of transportation confused us for a while since the ship they used was a type we had not encountered before.'

'It was a large ship bigger than an Al'kesh and with cloaking capabilities' Jacob told O'Neill, taking over from Selmak. 'Damn thing just appeared hovering right over our base, knocked out the defence batteries and landed troops.'

'They recorded images' Hammond told O'Neill. 'It was a Spirit Class Freighter.'

'You mean like Loki uses?' O'Neill responded, more than a little surprised. 'The NID stole one of the ones we captured?'

'No all the Spirit Class ships we've ever taken are accounted for, only one of them is even operational anymore because they burn as much elerium to run as a fighter wing so we mothballed the rest on Mars' Sharp chipped in. 'We've got no idea where the hell the NID got the thing from.'

'And we're sure it's the NID?' O'Neill queried.

'One of the Tok'ra guards who tried to stop them got a good look at the guys attacking the base before he took a three-round burst from an M16 in the chest' Jacob replied. 'He survived and once we stabilised him we were able to pull an image from his mind.'

'They gave us a copy to check against our records' Sharp informed O'Neill. 'Well they did after they first insisted that I submit to a lie-detector test to prove I had nothing to do with it myself' he complained bitterly.

Ren'al rolled her eyes. 'Commander, according to the results of the investigation you agreed to while under the za'tarc detector you were more annoyed at the implication that if you had been responsible there would have been any live witnesses left behind than you were the accusation you were guilty of carrying out the attack' she reminded him.

'I objected to the implication I'm some kind of blundering amateur' Sharp replied curtly, them thinking he was a ruthless amoral bastard was perfectly fine by him. 'The image they took from the Tok'ra matched an NID agent named Hoskins who went AWOL a couple of years back' he told O'Neill.

O'Neill frowned. 'How the hell did the freaking NID get offworld and lay their hands on one of Loki's spaceships?' he asked reasonably.

'We have absolutely no idea' Hammond replied honestly. 'What we do know is that based on both this incident and their prior record of what they did when they operated away from Earth before they have no problem in attacking our allies as well as our enemies' he said. 'As well as the toxin they stole the contents of the base armoury.'

'Plus a large quantity of naquadah' Per'sus admitted for the first time, causing the Tau'ri to look surprised.

General Hammond frowned. 'What grade?' he asked.

'Weapons grade' Per'sus replied. 'Part of the regular shipments the Tau'ri have been providing us with for some time now.'

'How much exactly are we talking about?' Sharp wanted to know.

'Just over a hundred bars' Per'sus told him.

'How much naquadah is a bar?' Joseph Faxon asked curiously.

'They're fifteen kilo's apiece because of the density of the damn stuff' Sharp told him. 'That's over thirty pounds in your terms' he explained to the American.

'Is that enough to build a naquadah bomb from?' Faxon queried.

'Let me put it this way' General Hammond replied this time. 'There's a lot less than that in one of our Mark VIII warheads and one of those would give you third degree burns in Philadelphia if it went off over Washington DC' he said. 'Might have been nice to have been told about this earlier Jacob' he told his old friend, the former USAF General adopting an awkward expression in response.

'If they've got one of Loki's ships and that much naquadah even if they can't figure out how to make more of that snake poison then they'll still be able to cause us some serious grief' Sharp growled.

'Calling our friends "snakes" as a racial epithet is no better than them calling us "monkeys" Commander' Woolsey reproached Sharp, 'worse even given that the Goa'uld and Tok'ra are not in fact snakes whereas we are very closely related to monkeys' he noted.

'My apologies, I'll try to come up with a less racially-charged term of abuse in future' Sharp responded with a smirk, enjoying the expression of near-hatred Malek was directing his way. While Jack O'Neill had carefully cultivated the impression that he was stupider than he was, so that people underestimated him, Russell Sharp deliberately went out of his way to project the persona of the man no alien ever wanted the Tau'ri politicians to let off the leash. Never push Earth too far or they might let X-COM push back the way they always wanted to.

'Copy me in on the memo when you've got one' O'Neill requested. 'So do we have any idea what we're going to do?' he asked.

'We've got no way of tracking a vessel that's using Loki's cloaking technology, not even Asgard sensors or the Ancient tech Anubis put on his ships to detect Goa'uld cloaks can do that' Hammond replied. 'We'll probably have to approach the problem from the other direction and try to capture any rogue NID personnel we can find on Earth hoping they'll have information we can use.'

'Hell for all we know they might be operating the ship from Earth' O'Neill remarked.

Sharp shook his head. 'Too much chance of us picking up their hyperspace wake' he said. 'We might not be able to see them in normal space but any ship that size would run the risk of being picked up by our detection grid if they were spending much time flying around the Protectorate' he pointed out. 'Why would they take the risk?' he asked rhetorically. 'So you also mentioned they cleared out your armoury, what did they get?'

'A small number of Tau'ri supplied Plasma Pistols and Laser Rifles' Malek answered, 'two crates of zat'nik'tels, four of Staff-Rifles, a case of Shock Grenades a shoulder-fired Light Staff-Cannon and a number of Transphase Eradication Rods.'

'If they were using projectile weapons before I can see why they'd want them' Sharp observed, at least the Laser Rifles would be of the older less-powerful type, Earth hadn't provided the Tok'ra with L2-A3's.

'I hate to say it but you know if this involves the NID, and we're going to try and get this situation cleared up quickly, I can make a suggestion on who we should try and bring in' O'Neill said. 'Assuming we can get him' he added.

'I have the IOA's authority to recruit anyone we need' Woolsey stated. 'This is extremely high priority.'

'If you're thinking who I'm thinking his price might be high and it won't just be money it'll be official diplomatic recognition' Hammond told O'Neill.

O'Neill sighed. 'Okay, you want this sorted you need to bring in Harry Maybourne, you need to give him a free hand and you need the United Worlds to formally accept that he's the sovereign ruler of the planet that made him king' he declared, visibly pained by saying it.

'That's a big ask diplomatically' Faxon responded, the man was basically a con-artist as far as he knew.

'Wait until you see the development aid package he'll somehow talk you into afterwards' O'Neill replied.

**Santhal – Pegasus Galaxy – April 2005**

An extremely predatory species the Wraith had the instinctual habit of snarling and baring their teeth when unexpectedly confronted by an enemy. This was something they could get away with when facing humans armed with pointy sticks but in this situation it merely gave the particular human stood in front of armed with an L2-A3 Laser Rifle the opportunity to get over his own shock at practically running straight into the alien as they both made their way through the dense woodland. While the wraith menaced with his teeth, forgetting the stun-pistol in his hand, the human pulled his own weapon's trigger, burning an instant hole in the alien and pretty much proving that army training trumps instinct as the wraith fell backwards with a smoking hole in his chest.

They had told him before he arrived at Atlantis that these things were surprisingly resilient so as Tomis Crake looked down at the fallen wraith he had just shot he wasn't surprised it was still twitching and moaning. What _did_ surprise him however was that the expression on the damn alien's face was almost human, a mixture of pain, perhaps some fear and maybe even a little embarrassment. 'Well you know what they say about hunting in the woods' Crake remarked to the dying wraith. 'Some days you get the human, some days the human gets you' he observed sagely before shooting it again, this time in the head.

'Well that's the last time I rely on a motion-scanner to tell me if it's safe to wander off and take a leak' Crake said to himself, theorising that the wraith had simply been stationary when he scanned for movement nearby.

Another soldier wearing the same uniform as Crake but with different insignia sewed to it came running over and joined him. 'First time you tagged a Space Vamp I guess?' he asked, looking at the corpse.

'Yeah' Crake confirmed, bending down to examine its right hand with interest. Supposedly they could suck the life right out of you with those hands he recalled, sort of like a sarcophagus in reverse.

'Don't worry, there's still fucking millions of the things left, we won't have the WWF complaining about driving them to extinction for at least a few more years yet' the soldier who had joined him joked.

'What's the WWF?' Crake asked, confused.

'The World Wildlife Fund... oh right sorry Sergeant, shouldn't use Earth cultural references' the other soldier apologised.

'Don't worry, I'm used to it' Crake replied, getting back up after pocketing the wraith's stun-pistol.

'The Captain wants you to return to the village, we took a couple of live ones and he wants you to take a look in their heads, get an idea how many more of the bastards are out here' the other soldier told him.

'That's why I'm here' the Langaran Sergeant responded. 'Have Psi-Amp, will travel' he said with a smile as they headed back towards the village where they had first encountered the wraith raiding party.

Tomis Crake had been a soldier in the Kelownan Army when Loki invaded his homeworld of Langara. To his own surprise he had survived that conflict and in an act of what he later decided was temporary insanity he had subsequently volunteered to join the Langaran version of X-COM, serving alongside other soldiers from not only Kelowna but also Tirania and the Andari Federation. From then he had found himself deployed to Optrica to help them put down the Bedrosian insurgents and had since then ended up on Tegalus helping the government of the Rand Protectorate stamp out the religious fanatics following that nut Soren.

The Langarans didn't have the advanced weapons of the Earthers or the Optricans, they weren't even as technologically sophisticated as the Orbanians or Galarans let alone the Tollan, Aschen or Hebridans, but they nonetheless had a resource that the other human worlds didn't have and could only envy. Unusually intelligent, with an average IQ that measured out twenty-five to thirty points higher than the Milky Way norm, the Langarans were also quick learners with freakishly good memories and they had by far the highest psionic strength and skill scores of any known human population beyond the practically extinct Hankans.

It was the common view on Langara that since other worlds had come to her aid during Loki's invasion that it was their duty to step up and follow that example, pay something back especially after all the aid they had received to help them rebuild. The best way they could do that was by supporting her allies in the way only they uniquely could, by offering the services of her specialist soldiers trained in the use of Earther-supplied Psionic-Amplifiers. The ability to see into the very minds of the enemy, and sometimes even control them to a limited degree, was an inordinately powerful weapon, one which was deemed likely to be particularly useful against the wraith who often had psionic abilities themselves which needed to be countered.

Lacking the defences of Earth or Tollana the three nations of Crake's homeworld were justifiably wary of provoking the Goa'uld back home but the wraith conversely were a _very_ long way away with very slow hyperdrives and helping their Earther friends fight aliens that actually used humans as _food_ was something that the people could certainly get behind. Now that there was regular two-way stargate travel from the Milky Way to Pegasus the Langaran government had been more than willing to allow "heroic volunteers" to "help our valiant allies defeat this new group of alien monsters that are preying on humanity" whereupon Sergeant Tomis Crake had found himself stationed in a multi-million –year-old floating city in another galaxy and was now seeing action before he had even finished unpacking his things.

The planet Santhal where Crake had found himself on his first mission in Pegasus was inhabited by a loose confederation of tribes who kept themselves scattered in small villages so as to not bring down the wraith upon themselves. Even so the wraith still came from time to time and a community or two would be lost, the victims then mourned by the other villagers and tribes as they waited their own turn to be culled. On this occasion however when the wraith had arrived by foot through the ring of the ancestors the leaders of the Tribes of Santhal had taken the advice of their friends and trading partners on Latira and had sent volunteers back to the unguarded ring to call for help from the people who called themselves Terrans.

They had not really expected these "Terrans" to come and if they actually _did_ come then the people of Santhal did not expect them to actually be able to fight off the wraith. In reality however the call for help had resulted in something nearly inconceivable the Terran soldiers had swiftly arrived in small flying craft of Ancestor manufacture and after a brief and _extremely_ one-sided fire-fight the wraith... had panicked and fled.

To be fair to the "Space Vamps", as they had been nicknamed, this had been their first encounter with one of the Mark II Powered Armour suits which only just arrived from the Milky Way themselves and although the Terrans had only come to Santhal with one trooper wearing it the sight of the armoured behemoth jumping from the back of a puddle-jumper then marching towards the traumatised wraith firing its rotary-plasma-repeater and gatling-shotgun had been more than a little unnerving. This was especially the case when the energy bolts of their return fire visibly splashed across the forcefield the suit was generating around itself as it stomped into the village they had been in the process of culling.

With the wraith's attention nicely focused elsewhere the rest the other two puddle-jumpers had landed nearby and the X-COM light infantry they carried had disembarked and entered the fray. A dozen grunts wearing basic body-armour and carrying L2-A3's weren't quite as terrifying as a Mark II on the rampage but they were certainly more than a score or so of wraith could handle and their appearance had been the last straw, causing the culling party to break and run before they could be outflanked.

Sergeant Tomis Crake had then learned that the wraith were faster than they looked, especially when running for their lives. Even with the "performance enhancing" drugs the Earthers had been giving him he didn't have a chance of keeping up though he tried.

Before the wraith came the village population had been around fifty or so, only eight had been fed upon but this was merely because the wraith had previously dined on the inhabitants of a smaller settlement nearer the stargate and they hadn't yet worked up an appetite. As Tomis returned as ordered the sound of some of the villagers wailing over their lost relatives was mixed with the excited babble of others who were practically worshipping their perceived saviours though obviously wary of the Mark II that was stood in the centre of the village, looking around for signs of enemy activity and likely scanning for them as well.

'Over here Sergeant' Captain Gaston called out, beckoning the Langaran to join him.

'I took out a wraith by a thicket about a hundred metres in that direction Sir' the Langaran reported, pointing with his rifle. 'My guess would be they still had enough sense to head for somewhere the Mark II wouldn't be able to easily follow' he suggested.

'Next time we'll surround them before they can run away' Gaston responded. 'Tracking them all down could be a pain in the ass and it's not like we can leave them loose out here' he said. At least they had lifesign detectors from the puddle-jumpers plus their motion-scanners so it wasn't like they were totally unequipped for the job. 'The locals are giving us different counts on wraith numbers, so I want the real count straight from the horses mouth' he continued. 'Or the wraith's mind anyway.'

'No problem Sir' Crake replied, shouldering his L2-A2 by its strap and unhooking his Psi-Amp from his equipment harness. Tomis Crake had actually met the Earther Captain before on Langara nearly two years ago, the young officer had been part of the X-COM forces sent to help fight Loki's invasion, and that made it a little easier to accept his authority even if he was an alien from Crake's perspective. 'Where are the wraith prisoners?' he asked.

'We've got them hog-tied in that hut over there Sergeant' Gaston replied, indicating one of the buildings "hut" being perhaps a little unfair in its description because the Santhal people weren't quite _that_ primitive. 'Wraith recover pretty fast after you zat them' he observed. 'Faster than we do at least, even after zat-week' he said, grinning.

Crake grimaced, recalling the training course he went through on Terra Nova, the Earther's "Omega Site" headquarters for X-COM. Much of it had involved familiarisation with new weapons and equipment but there was also the "immunization" against zat'nik'tel discharges which involved being shot with the things every evening for a week. Oddly it seemed to work, you actually did get better at recovering quickly from being zatted the more it happened to you but it still hurt like hell every time and the sadistic bastards doing it to the trainees seemed to enjoy it far too much in Crake's opinion. There was also an element of it being an initiation of course, Tomis had heard that before they had even heard of zat'nik'tels X-COM often used to shock new recruits with stun-rods.

Before they could get to the hut they were intercepted by a local, a woman wearing more expensive looking clothing than most. 'You are the leader?' she asked Gaston.

'Yes Ma'am' Gaston confirmed. 'Captain Jake Gaston' he introduced himself.

'I am Shiana' the woman replied. 'The Tribes of Santhal thank you for coming to our aid' she told him.

'I'll pass on your thanks to my superiors' Gaston responded. 'Is there anything else?' he asked. 'We still need to deal with the ones that got away.'

Shiana looked awkward. 'We don't have much to offer in return' she said apologetically.

'We're not asking for anything' Gaston replied, smiling.

Crake had a better understanding of the woman's position. The people here wouldn't want to be seen, or to see themselves as being a charity case he knew, they would want to be able to do something to help the "Terrans" as they called Earthers here in return for their intervention against the wraith. 'Sir, now that we're bringing more personnel to Atlantis we'll probably need additional food supplies' the Langaran suggested. 'If the people here have any surplus at all we could likely use it' he said, giving Gaston a look he hoped would be interpreted as "I'll explain later".

'Oh, yes we can share our harvest with you' Shiana responded.

Gaston was smart enough to correctly interpret Sergeant Crake's expression. 'When we return to base I'll mention that to my superiors as well as passing on your thanks' he told the local. 'Now we really need to interrogate the wraith prisoners' he added.

'I do not think you will be able to get anything from them' Shiana replied doubtfully, the Wraith were legendarily stubborn.

'Ve haf vays of making zem tock' Gaston told her in a very poor German accent before realising that the humour would fly right over the head not only the Santhal woman but also the Langaran. Although an extra-terrestrial human herself at least his girlfriend Cassie had lived on Earth long enough to have embraced the culture he thought, already missing her since she returned to Earth after an unexpectedly long stay on Atlantis.

Tomis Crake appraised his new commanding officer. There was no getting around it, he thought, Earthers were just fucking weird and they acted like the entire universe revolved around their planet just because of a few lucky breaks and a lot of advanced technology practically dropping into their laps.

Dragging the number of wraith they had to track down from the minds of the prisoners was easy enough for Tomis and his Psionic Amplifier, though their minds were very disturbing to telepathically link with. Far more disquieting for the Langaran than Wraith thought-processes however was learning that the reason they had come to Santhal on foot for their hunt was because at their Queen's order all the Darts from their hive and its escort cruisers were currently being serviced and inspected in preparation for them joining the great armada about to descend on Atlantis.

Another cultural reference Tomis didn't get was why after Colonel Vaselov explained how they would coordinate the defence of the city against the armada practically everyone back at Atlantis laughed and cheered when Major Sheppard pretended to cackle maniacally and said something about how the wraith would "now witness the firepower of this _fully armed and operational_ planetary defence system".

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**_Note from the Author:_**

___Janus gives Weir a list of possible ZPM locations in SGA episode 1:15 Before I Sleep one of which is the planet Dagan, formerly Sudaria. The SGA team do in fact find the hidden ZPM there in episode 1:16 The Brotherhood but The Daganiansincluding Allina take it from them because they believed it was their duty to keep it until the Ancestors returned. With Janus along, plus the SGA people pushing the line that they are the Ancestors returning (sort-of) there is no such problem. __Elizabeth Weir changed quite a lot during her tenure as leader of the Atlantis Expedition, circumstances forced her to let a few of her principles go in response to situations where her preference for negotiation over military action wasn't rational. I couldn't imagine the Weir who didn't go through that process wholely approving of the new model Elizabeth somehow! ____The Attero Device was an invention of Janus seen in SGA episodes 5:10 First Contact and 5:11 The Lost Tribe. It made Wraith hyperdrives explode when they turned them on but it also made stargates detonate hence the project was scrapped. However we know from SG-1 episode 7:09 Avenger 2.0 that the exploding stargate problem is hardly insurmountable given that you can just turn the things off (or rather scramble them so they don't work). The Ancients were very smart but often showed themselves to lack a little creativity!_

_____Just as a reminder because he hasn't been mentioned in the story for a while Ernest Littlefield was part of the original Stargate Program in the 1940's. He was stranded on Heliopolis (P3X-972) in 1945 and was eventually rescued five decades later (SG-1 episode 1:11 The Torment of Tantalus). Ambassador Joseph Faxon is the Tau'ri representative to the United Worlds which meets at Heliopolis as the Alliance of Four Great Races used to. __Rogue NID agents including Hoskins attacked goa'uld planets with Tok'ra symbiote poison in SG-1 episode 8:10 Endgame. Here instead of an Al'kesh formerly belonging to Osiris they are using the Spirit Class Freighter which Osiris (working for Loki) provided to Frank Simmons in return for his cooperation back in chapter 39 of the first XSGCOM story (over two years ago in Fic terms, they've been planning this a while). __Per'sus was the Supreme High Chancellor of the Tok'ra (very much the undisputed boss before Egeria retured). Malek a Tok'ra military commander and Ren'al a scientist. Given that the NID has attacked an offworld ally (as they also did in SG-1 episode 3:18 Shades of Grey stealing Asgard and Tollan technology) I imagined that a very senior Tok'ra delegation would be sent to talk to Earth (on neutral ground) and not only the SGC would be there (represented by O'Neill) but also the US Government would be represented by General Hammond (given the NID are from the United States), the IOA would send Richard Woolsey and Commander Sharp is there for X-COM (once the Tok'ra accepted he wasn't to blame himself._

_______We last saw Sergeant Tomis Crake of the Langaran (formerly Kelownan) Army was last seen in chapter 48 of the first XSGCOM story. It's been mentioned since that Langaran troops (with Psi Amps) had been deployed to help put down the Bedrosian resistance to Optrican annexation and on Tegalus, Tomis was one ofd those. __Shiana of the Tribes of Santhal appears in SGA episode 5:13 Inquisition (she was a great deal less fond of the Atlantis crew in that). __SG-1 got hit with zat'nik'tels a lot over the years and they did seem to develop a resistance to them over time (I'd put that down to their nervous-systems getting progressively fried to the point of insensibility myself). Not exactly being the most "touchy-feely" bunch having X-COM deliberately and repeatedly zatting new recruits to induce the same resistance (and to harden them up) seems not unreasonable (to them). __Couldn't resist the Star Wars bit at the end, John Sheppard did nickname Ronon "Chewie" after all!_  



	17. Chapter 17

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

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**Space Station – Hasara System – April 2005**

'We are beaten' Morrigan said simply, the fact was inescapable. 'I doubt we have more than twenty-five combat-capable Ha'tak left between all of us, each inferior to his even if we weren't so outnumbered, and the only reason Baal has not delivered the death-blow is because he wants us to bow-down before him.'

'His terms are not so unacceptable' Olokun said awkwardly, unable to look the handful of other System Lords sat around the chamber in the eye as he spoke, ashamed that he had been considering surrender for some time now. 'We get keep a quarter of our worlds and may even rebuild part of our fleets if we agree to recognise his claim to be the successor to Ra as Supreme System Lord' he said. 'It is possible that when Baal's emissary Selknhet arrives that even more generous terms could be offered' he suggested.

'You would happily eat the scraps from Baal's table' Ares responded with a sneer. 'If his lapdog comes with a better offer it is only because he wishes to gloat and massage his ego by appearing munificent.'

Morrigan nodded. 'Naturally' she agreed, 'but our resistance against him for so long at least means we have retained a modicum of self-respect' she said, 'unlike those System Lords who surrendered with barely a fight.'

'Or the three fawning sycophants who compete for his favour hoping to rule by his side' Olokun added. As soon as the war ended Amaterasu, Bastet and Kali would surely be at each others throats figuratively and perhaps literally as each tried to gain the position of Baal's Queen.

'We once all kneeled before Ra's authority, is it really so heinous a prospect to have to kow-tow to Baal instead?' Morrigan asked the others rhetorically. 'It is not like we face the prospect of being ruled by Sokar or Anubis.'

'Those psychotics would have wanted our heads on pikes not merely bowed in submission' Olokun agreed.

Lord Yu had been sitting and listening quietly until now with his First Prime whispering in his ear but now he rose to his feet. 'I will fight to the death' he declared, 'honour demands nothing less' he continued. 'You can surrender if you want to save your sorry lives but I will not!' he thundered.

'Some of us have a few more years of life left before us than others' Morrigan responded sarcastically, they all knew that Yu was sliding away mentally and physically. 'Almost all my worlds are already conquered, my Jaffa but few and my naquadah stockpile almost depleted' she admitted. 'What is the point of fighting on?'

'To prove you are not a snivelling coward' Ares told her. 'I am with you' he informed Lord Yu who nodded his approval. Ares had adopted the persona of a war-god for a reason and it was both unsurprising and apt that he would rather go down fighting than submit.

'To do that is to commit suicide' Olokun said. 'If you are going to surrender to Baal I will likely do so as well' he told Morrigan, grateful that he did not appear to be alone in considering it.

Morrigan looked around. 'I see no alternative' she replied sadly.

Ares threw Olokun a look of disgust before turning back to Lord Yu. 'I think we stand alone' he addressed him. 'So where shall we make our last stand?' he asked simply.

'Nice as it is to hear that you aren't _all_ planning to give up it would be more impressive if the "death before dishonour" faction hadn't given up on the notion of victory instead of glorious defeat' Camulus interrupted from the doorway, an amused smile on his face.

'You're late' Morrigan chided him. 'We agreed to all be here in time to discuss the situation properly and make our decisions before Selkhet gets here' she reminded the last of the independent System Lords to arrive at Hasara.

'I'm sorry, I was too busy defeating one of Baal's fleets' Camulus replied smugly, crossing his arms and not bothering to take his seat remaining by the entrance to the meeting chamber.

'You could have at least come up with a more plausible excuse' Olokun responded. 'You only have a single Ha'tak to your name' he noted.

'Seven actually as of yesterday' Camulus replied. 'I was hoping for more but between battle-damage and some of Baal's more loyal Jaffa destroying their ships rather than be captured I only ended up with another six.'

'Ridiculous' Lord Yu declared with certainty.

'You could not have even matched one of Baal's advanced Ha'tak with your forces' Morrigan stated with certainty. 'Let alone board and capture six with your handful of Jaffa.'

'True alas, but I did have help' Camulus told them. 'May I introduce my new ally' he announced, stepping to one side as a woman appeared next to him.

Olokun frowned. 'The Tau'ri are already our allies and they have not been much help' he said. The humans of the First World had won numerous tactical victories but without a great fleet of capital ships to support them in strategic terms they were rarely able to exploit their gains or even hold onto territory they captured. The Tau'ri Warlord Sharp and his feared First-Prime Rodrigues had bled Baal's armies white, slaughtering Jaffa by the thousands and Kull by the hundreds but they could not win the war with ground troops. Continuing the metaphor Baal could always transfuse his losses and the ever-increasing skill of his armies and the quality of their equipment meant that it was also becoming harder to win the overwhelming victories the Tau'ri needed to even slow him down.

'Aren't you out of uniform Colonel Carter' Morrigan queried of the woman, she was wearing what appeared to be a fairly tight dark-grey outfit rather than X-COM or USAF issue clothing.

'I'm sorry but you seem to have mistaken me for someone else' Carter replied, a smile appearing on her face as the tinny sound of metallic scampering behind her heralded a number of what looked like small robotic insects clattering past her. 'Don't worry I'm not offended' she added sweetly, bending down to pet one of them fondly before standing again.

'Replicators?' Olokun exclaimed in horror. 'You brought them here' he asked Camulus in disbelief.

'The Tau'ri warned us of these... things' Morrigan added, staring at what she now realised must be the replicator copy of Samantha Carter. 'They exist only to devour technology and reproduce' she continued aghast. 'They almost defeated the_Asgard_!'

'We _did_ defeat the Asgard' RepliCarter responded curtly, if not for assistance from Earth Ida would certainly have fallen. 'And we can help you defeat Baal if you're willing to help us' she added.

'It's a mutually beneficial arrangement' Camulus told the other System Lords.

'You must be insane' Lord Yu declared.

'No, he was desperate rather than mad' RepliCarter corrected the Goa'uld. 'I've just been biding my time until you were so close to defeat that you'd clutch at any lifeline that was offered' she said. 'It's a very simple proposition, I'll help you capture Baal's ships, give half to you and keep the rest and in return you can help me.'

'How can _we_ be of any help to _you_?' Morrigan asked, trying to maintain some poise and ignore the machines skittering about.

RepliCarter laughed. 'Well you could say that I need the assistance of allies who don't fall to pieces under pressure' she replied. 'I'm proposing a long-term arrangement because even if I did find a solution to the current design flaw among my kind who's to say another won't come up in future?' she asked rhetorically. 'Your technology and materials are inferior to that of the Asgard or Ancients in any case so keeping you around is no real loss' she said. 'That's the difference between me and my less-advanced brethren with me they're sentient but not truly sapient so sometimes they devour when they should cooperate.'

'I would sooner be a slave to Baal than these orac' Ares declared.

'The difference is not only will I let you keep all your own worlds I'll give you some of the holdings of Baal and his allies too' RepliCarter responded. 'Primitive agricultural planets are no use to me whatsoever, you might as well have them' she said.

'She gets his industrial worlds' Camulus added.

'Baal's continuing development of the Ancient technology he got from Anubis means I do have an overriding instinct to control his research and manufacturing facilities but that shouldn't effect you' RepliCarter told the System Lords. 'I might even throw a few bones in your direction, make you more valuable allies.'

Camulus smiled evilly. 'Of course the Tollan and a few others will receive her full attention' he said. 'Do you remember our defeat centuries ago at the hands of the Serrakin' he asked rhetorically. 'It wasn't worth the losses we would take in crushing them but the Replicators will turn their gleaming cities into more of themselves.'

And then we'll deal with the Aschen, the nanotechnology copy of Samantha Carter thought to herself, also smiling. 'It's a very large universe, enough to allow you to maintain your little empires and live how you please' she told the goa'uld leaders.

'What of the Tau'ri?' Morrigan asked.

'If I thought it was possible to coexist with _them_ I'd be making them this offer but it isn't' RepliCarter replied honestly. 'Even if they didn't possess technologies and resources we hunger for the respective natures of our societies mean that we cannot live side by side in peace.'

'But you expect us to believe we can coexist?' Olokun queried doubtfully.

'You've got little I want and you're no threat to me' RepliCarter replied. 'It's far more likely you'll try to betray me than the reverse' she continued. 'Well I've made my pitch now you get to choose' she said, crossing her arms and with an expectant look on her face.

Camulus finally took his seat with the others. 'I've already made my choice' he told them. 'For the rest of you it's kneel before Baal and hope he lets you keep some of your holdings...'

'While kissing his ass' RepliCarter interjected.

'Fight him and surely die in a futile act of defiance' Camulus continued despite the interruption, 'or side with these machines and get a chance to not only get back everything you've lost but also expand the number of systems you own.'

Lord Yu's First-Prime whispered something in his ear. 'The Tau'ri have developed many powerful weapons' Yu spoke up. 'They may yet defeat Baal themselves.'

'Ramblings from a senile old fool' Camulus responded with derision. 'Even if the Tau'ri were to do that after defeating Baal they would immediately declare war on us' he stated.

Morrigan nodded. 'I find it easier to believe we could coexist with these _thing_s than we could Sharp of Canada' she agreed, indicating the closest replicator to herself.

'I propose a vote on this new alliance' Camulus announced.

'And before you do I'd like to offer a gesture of goodwill' RepliCarter said. 'To each System Lord that aligns with me I will present you with five Ha'tak that formerly belonged to Baal' she told them.

'And you will be astonished at how fast your ships are if you allow a few of the machines to come aboard and interface with the hyperdrive' Camulus said. 'The Ha'tak we captured from Baal are now _ten times_ as swift as his own.'

'Faster, if you don't mind having to replace the hyperdrives every so often' RepliCarter added.

'And if we vote no?' Ares asked.

'Then after I've defeated Baal I'll come for you' RepliCarter replied flatly. 'Any worlds of yours that I don't want I'll give to Camulus or others that vote yes' she said. 'It's an offer you can refuse, but you really don't want to.'

When Selkhet arrived at Hasara an hour later to offer Baal's terms for their surrender their refusal was surprising, though not as much as when the woman who looked like Samantha Carter of the Tau'ri appeared and punched a hole in her.

The war for control of the Milky Way was about to veer off in another weird direction.

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – April 2005**

Travoc had set up a Tollan holographic projector in the conference room which was interfaced with the cities own computer. It was now projecting a three-dimensional representation of the Pegasus Galaxy in the centre of the room with the position of the Lantean system indicated as a single blinking blue dot among a sea of tiny stars.

'With both the ZPM we received from SG-1 and the one from Dagan plugged in we've managed to get the Long Range Sensors up to their full capability and we're now able to detect and track Wraith movements in approximately a quarter of the galaxy' Rodney McKay told the Atlantis senior staff who had gathered to hear how they planned to defend the city. 'Can we show the position of Wraith Hives and Cruisers?' he requested, a number of red dots appearing on the hologram as he did so.

'Not too many near us' Elizabeth Weir, or to be precise the now blond Elizabeth Weir who had been rescued from the past observed.

'That's because we nuked most of the ones that used to live in this corner of the galaxy months ago' Major John Sheppard told her with obvious satisfaction.

'Yes we did and because of that we've got more time to prepare for the main Wraith attack than we would have otherwise' McKay agreed. 'Wraith hyperdrives are slow, even slower than the goa'uld ones were before Apophis and later Anubis managed to squeeze some more speed out of them' he continued. 'It'll be at least three weeks until this cluster of red dots representing the armada heading for Atlantis gets here' he announced, pointing at it.

'How many ships?' the other Elizabeth Weir, the one in formal command of the Pegasus Expedition asked.

'Seventeen hives, over twice that number of cruisers' McKay replied.

Sheppard smiled. 'Sweet' he said, both Weirs turning to him with an expression that made it clear they couldn't grasp what was good about such news. 'That'll more than double the number of hives we've racked up since we got here' he explained brightly.

Janus had thought he was starting to understand Terran humour but now he wasn't so sure. 'Do you have any idea how quickly that many ships can drain the shields of this city?' he asked in dismay. 'You only have one potentia with a practically full charge, one at fifty percent plus a third with barely enough left in it to power the shield for a few hours if it _wasn't_ under heavy bombardment.'

'It will not be that many hives by the time they get here' Colonel Vaselov told him. 'We are not going to sit back and let them come to us.'

'Like they say back in the Milky Way, the best defence is a good attack' Sheppard agreed. 'With the help of our Tollan friends we're going to thin out their numbers a little' he said.

Travoc nodded. 'The Curia has authorised the cruiser _Sher-Mal_ to intercept the Wraith fleet and engage them' he announced. 'It is hoped that a display of our firepower will cause them to rethink their attack on Atlantis.'

'Can a Tollan Cruiser take on that many Wraith vessels?' the dark-haired Elizabeth Weir asked.

'Not in what you might call a slugging match' Travoc replied honestly. 'We have excellent Asgard-supplied shields like your own ships, and backed by superior power-generation but the sheer size and estimated firepower of the Wraith ships means that we would not wish to be exchanging fire with so many for more than a few minutes' he said. 'Our plan agreed with the Captain of the _Sher-Mal_ is simply to jump into the middle of the Wraith fleet and destroy as many as we can before escaping.'

'How?' Janus queried.

'By using Asgard beaming technology to teleport warheads aboard the Hiveships' Travoc replied.

'You have blown up Hives before and that doesn't look like it deterred them' Teyla noted.

'Not like this we have not' Vaselov told her. 'The Tollan do not employ mere naquadah or naquadria boosted thermonuclear devices' he said.

'Yeah, what is the yield of those UFT Bombs you make?' Sheppard asked Travoc.

'In your terms, in excess of ten teratons' Travoc replied. 'They can raze an entire continent' he said without exaggerating. 'We are able to make more powerful devices of course, and we do have a small stockpile of one-hundred teraton warheads kept as a strategic deterrent on Tollana but the _Sher-Mal_ is not carrying any.'

'Not bad for a people that say they're not warlike' Sheppard observed with a wry smile.

'We're not, but we never claimed to be pacifists either' Travoc replied seriously. The Tollan had always accepted the need for the application of military force, their world being heavily defended long before they met people from Earth. They were perhaps more interventionist, and a great deal less isolationist, these days leading to but it wasn't like they had ever had a moral imperative against killing those who would kill them, they just found themselves in that situation more now.

'And a teraton is?' the blond Weir asked. She technically had no authority here, her future position and role still proving very difficult to sort out but for now she was still getting invited to all the meetings so she wasn't entirely out of the loop.

'A teraton is a thousand gigatons Dr Weir, or a million megatons if you prefer' Zelenka explained. His section of the briefing was coming up and he had been mostly going over his notes until now. 'Our standard naquadah-enhanced warhead is a 1.2 gigaton device.'

'Basically the Hive one of the Tollan bombs explodes on is going to pretty much turn into superheated plasma instantly' McKay told her. 'No need to trigger any secondary explosions in order for the ship to be completely destroyed, it'll just be a bright flash and an expanding fireball made from what used to be eleven kilometres worth of spaceship' he said.

'Makes our next-generation Mark IX look like a cherry-bomb' Sheppard said appreciatively.

'We can but hope the Wraith are equally impressed and run away in terror but assuming that doesn't happen what do we do next?' Weir-in-charge asked.

Colonel Vaselov signalled for the hologram to zoom in. 'Our study of wraith technology, in particular the crashed supply ship we found and the cruiser resting on the ocean floor, indicates that they have severe limitations not only in terms of speed but also endurance' he said. 'The radiation that ships are exposed to during hyperspace travel is particularly harmful to the organically-based vessels used by the enemy and means they have to pause several times on long journeys for their ships to... I believe "heal" is an appropriate word' he continued. 'The _Sher-Mal_ is considerably faster than the hives so it will track them and attack them at will but we also plan to hit them with a larger force at least once as Major Sheppard will explain.'

Sheppard meshed his fingers in front of him. 'It's likely that the Wraith will want to stop to feed before starting the last leg of their journey' he said. 'Given the course they're on, how far they go between resting their ships and the population of the planets on the way we can make a reasonable assumption that they'll stop at a world we've identified that's only a few light-years away and has enough "food" to supply their needs' Sheppard continued. 'It's got a stargate in orbit which means we can get our Puddle-Jumpers there as well as our Avengers and by that time _Daedalus_ should have arrived so we'll have a second capital ship to support the _Sher-Mal_.'

'It is an eighteen day journey and they are supposed to be launching today, or tomorrow at the latest, so she should be here for the fight' Vaselov agreed. It had been suggested that Atlantis should send a ZPM back to the Milky Way through the stargate to enable the first 304 Class ship built to fully power its Asgard hyperdrive and make the journey much faster, however based on the speed of the Wraith approach it had been deemed an unnecessary waste of a still irreplaceable resource.

'If they don't stop there we'll just send the jumpers back to Atlantis and attack the Wraith with our hyperspace-capable ships alone' Sheppard told them. 'We've got such a speed advantage we can hit them and be back here to rest and re-arm long before they can reach Atlantis' he said. 'When, or if, they do finally get here with the hives we haven't managed to destroy our own ships will support the defence of Atlantis.'

The hologram changed again to show the planet Lantea rotating in space with the the city floating on the surface of its single massive ocean clearly marked. 'The defence satellite we recovered and relocated from its original position is now positioned in a geostationary orbit almost directly above our heads' Zelenka announced, the satellite now showing as another dot thirty thousand above following the planet as it turned. 'It is now equipped with a shield generator from one of the goa'uld ha'tak motherships destroyed by drones above Earth plus a goa'uld cloaking device that will at least greatly reduce the distance at which the Wraith detect it' he said with reasonable confidence.

'The problem is that even if they don't detect it before it fires as soon as it takes out the first hive we shoot it at the rest are going to open up on it with everything they've got' McKay noted. 'Even with all the naquadah generators we've packed in there to power the shield as well as reduce the recharge time of the weapon to a minimum it's not going to be able to score very big before it's blown out of the sky' he said.

'Which is why it is only part of our orbital defences as you well know Rodney' Zelenka responded, annoyed by the interruption. 'As well as the Lantean-built weapon satellite we also have a number of our own less powerful though still highly destructive AG-3X satellites with more hopefully arriving from Earth able to be placed in orbit before the attack' he said. 'The AG-3X should be more than capable of burning deep enough into a hive to damage or destroy critical systems or fired at a mere cruiser be able to cripple it' he continued. 'Unfortunately the sheer size of wraith vessels means that they are not the truly devastating weapon they were against the Ha'tak of Anubis but they are certainly not going to be ignored and will likely draw fire away from the Lantean satellite as well as the city itself.'

'What about the ZapSats?' Sheppard queried.

'Our laser-armed satellites are simply not going to be able to inflict enough damage on a Hive or even a cruiser hull to bother firing them at capital vessels' Zelenka stated. 'Therefore they will be tasked with trying to keep wraith darts away from the more valuable assets and I think we all know what a ZapSat would do to a mere dart even at hundreds of kilometres of distance.'

Sheppard laughed. 'Those poor little suckers don't even have shields' he said amused by the mental image of darts as flies around an electric bug-zapper.

'On the subject of ZapSats in addition to those we already have in orbit we are being sent a handful of a new model which uses elerium-crystal beam focusing to increase laser strength by an extra fifty percent and is powered by a mix of standard Mark I and prototype Mark II Naquadah generators' Zelenka announced. 'The Mark II burns out after fifteen to twenty minutes but during that time it produces 600% as much power output' he said. 'In those fifteen to twenty minutes the ZapSat's electroplasmic shield will be almost impervious to anything short of capital-ship weaponry and instead of the laser cannon only being able to fire once every twelve seconds it reduces to six.'

'Excellent' Vaselov responded with satisfaction. 'The fewer darts we have to handle the easier it will be for the F-302 and Jumper pilots' he noted.

Zelenka signalled he wanted the image changed again, this time to show the city of Atlantis itself. 'As you know we now have three Heavy Ion Cannon emplaced, one of the end of each of these piers' he said, the piers changing colour on the projection. 'Unfortunately we cannot fire the cannon through the city shield but we can retract the shield so that the ends of the piers are outside the bubble enabling us to fire in support from the surface while the majority of the city remains protected from orbital bombardment' he said. 'The Heavy Ion Cannon do have integral one-way shields of their own so they should be able to survive a well-targeted or lucky hit and we have placed three more shield generators on the ends of the other three exposed piers where we have placed batteries of both laser and elerium plasma beam cannon as normally carried by our own fighters.'

'The plasma beams can start hitting darts at just over fifty-klicks away' Sheppard commented. 'At twenty they'll be in effective range of the laser cannon too but before they get near that close we'll open up with nuclear-tipped SAM's' he said.

'Low kiloton warheads, nothing extreme' Colonel Vaselov noted. 'The missiles our F-302's will be firing at the hives in space will be far more impressive' he added, looking forward to climbing into the cockpit of his fighter.

'We'll evacuate all non-combatants to Earth for the duration but we're confident we can really mess up the wraith because they're just not used to coming up against serious opposition' Sheppard said. 'Hopefully we won't even have to use up any of the Drones we're getting from Antarctica but we've always got those in our back pocket.'

Janus looked around. 'You cannot seriously be this confident that you can defeat seventeen hive-ship, all their escort cruisers and thousands upon thousands of darts this way' he said, nonplussed.

'I am afraid that your people always overcomplicated the problem of dealing with the Wraith' Vaselov replied, smiling as he would to a child. They had considered the plan using the DHD virus and the Aterro device but it would take too long to safely plan and implement so it was being kept for another day. 'How do we deal with hostile alien ships that don't have shields Major Sheppard?' he asked.

'With great big buckets of concentrated sunshine Sir' Sheppard replied, grinning. 'As many of them as we need to get the job done' he said.

**Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – May 2005**

'We're sure about this?' Brigadier-General Jack O'Neill asked, hoping it was just a bad dream or another intel screw-up.

'The Asgard cannot confirm exactly what happened because they lost all contact with the ship they sent shortly after it arrived but when they sent three of their O'Neill Class warships to investigate what happened to the science vessel _Daniel Jackson_all they found was wreckage scored with signs of gunfire from goa'uld vessels' Major Davis replied. 'It looks like it was all a trick to get hold of the anti-replicator weaponry.'

'Goddammit!' O'Neill swore, thumping his fist down on his desk. 'Have they gone freaking nuts, they've sided with the freaking Replicators for Christ's sake!' he exclaimed, almost as much bewildered as he was angry.

'The Asgard are, let's not put this mildly' Davis began, 'they're _pissed_' he said. 'We all thought Lord Yu was trustworthy, at least for a goa'uld, so when he asked us for help saying the Replicators were attacking one of his worlds the Asgard sent a ship to help right away.'

'And got ambushed' O'Neill said, trying to make himself calm down by taking a few deep breaths. 'It wasn't Thor aboard was it?' he asked.

'No the Asgard ship was being commanded by a scientist named Kvasir, he may or may not still be alive, we won't know until the System Lords start talking to us again' Davis replied.

'I've got a few things to say to them' O'Neill growled.

'So far they're not answering our calls on the goa'uld frequencies' Davis told him. 'Most of what we know is coming from the Tok'ra' he said. 'It seems that as soon as they ambushed the _Daniel Jackson_ and gave the anti-replicator weapon to Colonel Carters duplicate for study the Replicators started attacking Baal in full force, keeping some vessels for themselves and handing the rest to Lord Yu, Camulus, Morrigan and the others in the anti-Baal coalition' he continued. 'Baal is trying to hold them back but he's losing more battles than he's winning and his numerical superiority isn't going to last long with the killer-lego capturing his ships.'

'What are X-COM and the IOA saying?' O'Neill asked. He had only gone home for the night, went to sleep after a few beers watching the game and by the time he got back to the SGC "Disaster Davis" was there (never a good sign) and everything had been turned on its head.

'The politicians are trying to come up with a response' Davis replied. 'In the mean-time X-COM say they no longer consider our alliance with Lord Yu and the others in place and will take military action against them as appropriate however the IOA has not endorsed that position.'

O'Neill frowned. 'Where does that leave the Protectorate?' he asked.

'In terms of our treaty with the System Lords we don't know' Davis admitted. 'We're not sure about the Asgard Protected Planet's treaty either' he said. '_Daedalus_ is already on its way to Pegasus and they've got problems big enough of their own that the IOA don't want to recall her, so for now we've adopted a policy that any goa'uld ship that enters the Tau'ri Protectorate will be fired upon.'

'So are we still at war with Baal?' O'Neill queried.

'Yes but that might change I suppose if the IOA decides we need to back him against the Replicators' Major Davis replied. 'I'll keep you posted' he said.

'Just so I know when to tell the SG Teams to stop shooting at his Jaffa' O'Neill replied. 'We're at war with the Replicators but so far we're _not_ at war with their goa'uld allies.'

'Officially we are not at war with Lord Yu or the others as yet' Davis confirmed. 'But the forces under Commander Sharp's might be fighting them soon, if they're not already.'

O'Neill groaned. 'And the Asgard...'

'Are at war with the Replicators like always and may declare war on the System Lords allied to them at any moment' Davis told him. 'The Tok'ra and Free Jaffa are currently trying to determine which they should be on, they'll probably lean towards Baal though if he starts losing bad like we will I imagine.'

'Okay, I think I've got a handle of this now' O'Neill announced after another deep breath.

Davis looked shifty. 'No you haven't' he responded. 'I haven't told you the best part yet' he said.

'Oh, please do tell me the "best part" Major Davis' O'Neill replied sardonically.

'Just before you called me in I received a note telling me that another player just entered the game' Davis replied. 'Loki's ships have started attacking the Replicators and Replicator-allied goa'uld.'

Jack O'Neill nodded slowly. 'Okay' he said slowly. 'So our enemies, enemy is the ally of our enemies, enemies, former-allies enemy' he worked out in his head as best he could.

'I wish it was that simple' Davis replied.

'You think _that_ was simple?' O'Neill responded in disbelief. 'It barely made sense to _me_ and _I_ said it' he declared.

'It is when you hear that Loki is offering to form an alliance' Davis replied.

'You mean with Baal?' O'Neill surmised.

'No' Davis replied. 'With _us_' he said seriously.

O'Neill looked at him, looking hopefully for a sign this was just a delayed April Fools joke at his expense but alas seeing no such indication in his expression. 'It's at times like this I wish I knew where the key to my desk drawer was so I could keep a bottle of scotch in it' O'Neill told him.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

_RepliCarter's reappearance and visit to Hasara Station not exactly playing out as it did in SG-1 episode 8:16 Reckoning! The minor goa'uld Selkhet served Baal, he sent her to Hasara to negotiate the surrender of Lord Yu and the other hold-outs but RepliCarter killed her (and the others originally, here it's just her)._ _The Replicators were able to drastically enhance goa'uld hyperdrives to an almost absurd degree based on what they did in episode 5:01 Enemies giving them practical intergalactic speeds. A mere order of magnitude increase is easily within their ability (but is still enough to put Baal's ships completely in the shade)._

___The Atlantis sensors were able to track ships a very long distance away once they got them operational, enough to cover a quarter of the galaxy thanks to Pegasus being far smaller than the Milky Way. That Wraith ships are relatively slow and have to stop to recover between short trips through hyperspace makes it a lot easier to ambush them than the vessels belonging to other races (it's yet another reason why the Ancients should have beaten them incidentally). __n SGA episode 1:16 it's mentioned it was going to take two weeks for the Wraith heading to Atlantis to get there. Here it's taking longer because the majority of Hives in that part of the galaxy were already destroyed so the armada is travelling from further away. __The Tollan constructed warheads that could destroy a continent in SG-1 episode 5:09 Between Two Fires. Given what happened to Sarita having them able to produce devices with yields measured in multiple teratons is more than feasible! __The ability of the Atlantis shield to contract is shown several times from the pilot episode onwards. I could have just handwaved away the possible problem of the Heavy Ion Cannon firing out through the shield away but since you can pull the shield in from the piers I took a different tack. __Mark II naquadah generators that produced six times the power as the originals but burned out rapidly as a response are first introduced in SGA episode 1:20 The Seige (Part II). Add a few to an upgraded ZapSat and you get a much meaner weapon's platform (for a while). __Moving the Lantean Defence Satellite from its original location to Lantean orbit is a much less difficult task than some of the things they moved in the show (the naqudah asteroid being a prime example!). It was the size of a Ha'tak so a shield generator from one should be able to generate the right size shield-bubble for it. Apophis was able to cloak Ha'tak's so that should work too._

_____Confused? You won't be after next week's episode of XSGCOM_. :-p  



	18. Chapter 18

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**Hyperspace – Pegasus Galaxy – May 2005**

'This wasn't the plan' Major Sheppard stated, trying not to sound too angry. The Tollan tended to regard humans from less advanced worlds as being barbarous and he certainly didn't want to help confirm that opinion among the bridge crew of the Tollan warship.

Sammin the officer commanding the cruiser _Sher-Mal_ held the rank of Trierarch, another Greco-Roman linguistic holdover which indicated the origin of at least some of the Tollan population. As such he outranked Tesserarius Travoc who was stood on the other side of the captain's chair looking none too pleased himself although marginally less surprised. 'These are the latest orders of the Curia' Sammin told Sheppard, 'they supersede my prior instructions and I will follow them' he said.

'But you could be throwing away the opportunity for a decisive strike on the enemy fleet' Sheppard argued. 'The more of them we kill here the less we'll have to face later' he said.

'I know that your military regards up as being less than adept at tactics or strategy but we aren't stupid Major' Sammin responded. 'If the Wraith don't respond to our ultimatum then we'll still engage them' he continued, 'it's just that my government regards the idea of the _Sher-Mal_ simply attacking them without warning, or even an attempt at negotiation, as being uncivilised at best, murderous at worst.'

'You and the Curia do know that the Wraith are heading to Atlantis to murder us so they can continued eating the population of this galaxy right?' Sheppard asked rhetorically, now attempting not to sound too sarcastic as well as calm.

Sammin sighed. 'Major if they weren't self-evidently despicable as they are the _Sher-Mal_ wouldn't be on this mission at all' he replied. 'The fact that the Curia is fully willing to support Earth in a war against these things _if necessary_, despite our general reluctance to get involved in events occurring outside out territory, proves we understand the gravity of the situation' he said. 'All we want to do is satisfy in our own minds that we've exhausted peaceful options before we resort to force.'

'The plan was to blow up a few of them and _then_ see if they'd talk' Sheppard replied. 'Trust me, the Wraith won't take you seriously unless you kick their ass.'

'Major, based on what I know about the Wraith I don't believe peaceful coexistence is an option myself' he admitted. 'I fully expect to order several of their ships blown to atoms' he continued, 'but I obey my superiors and they say try talking, _then_demonstrate our firepower, and then try talking _again_' he said. 'If the Wraith still don't see sense after we beam warheads aboard a few of their ships then I'll kill as many more as I can with a relatively clear conscience.'

Sheppard took up a rest-easy stance with his hands behind his back, attempting to appear more authoritative. As the only member of the Atlantis expedition aboard apart from Travoc he was duty-bound to point out the arguments against the Tollan's intended course of action. 'You'll be throwing away the element of surprise' he pointed out. 'Once they've got their shit together you can't possibly take on that many ships' he said. 'Remember we've got Asgard beaming technology too, I know it'll take a while for the sensors to get a proper lock onto the destination coordinates and send over the warhead and you can't sit there and get hit by Wraith capital-ship guns very long.'

'Major, I haven't got enough warheads to take them all out anyway' Sammin replied. 'We'll do what we can then disengage from combat' he said. 'It's not like they can pursue, we're orders of magnitude faster in hyperspace than they are.'

'I just hope we don't live to regret this' Sheppard replied.

'Isn't that a better option than _not_ living to regret it?' Travoc queried.

'Okay, you've got me there' Sheppard conceded. 'But the best option has no regret at all' he added, hoping that the Tollan were advanced enough technologically to compensate for their cultural bias against shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later.

In Tollan mythology, dating back to when they didn't believe you could explain everything in the universe with equations, a Sher-Mal was a beautiful being that would take you to her home in the stars when you died. Naming a warship primarily designed to deliver obscenely powerful WMD "Angel" wouldn't have necessarily been an Earth thing but Sheppard had to concede it was a very attractive vessel and it had internal and external aesthetics which made it looked far more advanced than the blocky BC-303 and 304 class capital warships of Earth. The ship being heavily automated, the crew of the _Sher-Mal_ numbered less than a third of the complement of a Daedalus Class vessel despite being larger and the temporary quarters Sheppard had been assigned were better than he had on Atlantis if anything. Tollan "Ghostriders" as the Tau'ri nicknamed them seemed almost more like cruise-liners than cruisers in some respects, given the attention paid to the comfort of those aboard and their looks. They were like someone had mounted the armament of a Kirov Class battlecruiser and the battleship USS Iowa onto the Queen Mary and sent it out to bust heads while the passengers drank champagne and listened to soothing classical music.

With the Atlantis Sensors feeding the position of the Wraith Fleet to the _Sher-Mal_ via an encrypted subspace communications link the Tollan warship had reduced its speed to their relative crawl and for the last hundred and eighty light-years had been shadowing them, waiting for the armada to drop out of hyperspace. As soon as they did so Trierarch Sammin ordered his ship to re-enter normal space several million kilometres behind them and then the Tollan warship cloaked and began to accelerate towards them on sub-light engines.

Since her construction the cruiserl had been upgraded several times as new technology became available. Originally fitted out for a Tollan designed shield, that had been quickly replaced by an Asgard one taken from a scrapped Beliskner Class ship, her hyperdrive had once been a back-engineered Goa'uld model provided by Earth but was itself now also Asgard while Hebridan Ion Engines had superseded her original sub-light propulsion. Initially armed only with six Ion Cannon for self-defence, three on each flank, the upgrades Anubis made to his Ha'tak shields necessitated the addition of a single Heavy Ion Cannon in a fixed forward-firing mount to cope with more dangerous opponents. More recently, and subsequent to the Tollan intervention against Loki, the Sher-Mal had then been outfitted with some twenty-five point-defence turrets armed with an evolved laser weapon they called a "Tracking Tracer Cannon", however at this moment it was an original feature of the cruiser rather than any upgrades which was proving itself most useful as shifted slightly out of phase with normal space it stalked the unsuspecting Wraith fleet.

As they neared the hives Sammin requested a holographic projection of their formation and an image of the seventeen hives and their cruiser escorts formed up into a huge V shape almost like a flock of geese appeared on the bridge. 'Bring us up directly behind the lead hive so that we're between the two trailing behind on either side' Sammin ordered.

'You'd better raise the shield as soon as we de-cloak just in case they're trigger-happy' Sheppard warned.

'He's right' Travoc agreed, Sammin giving the order to do so but telling his crew not to charge weapons until he gave the order.

The immense size of the Hives meant that even when she was close enough to appear in the holographic projection too the scale representation of the _Sher-Mal_ was utterly dwarfed by the vessels of the armada. Itself roughly five-hundred metres in length the Tollan ship was nonetheless small compared to the Wraith _cruisers_ let alone the eleven kilometre long leviathans they escorted and Trierarch Sammin was only glad these monsters lacked shields because otherwise he wouldn't dream about doing this.

Becoming an invisible part of the grand formation the Sher-Mal pulled up behind the lead Hive twenty-five or so kilometres behind and flanked left and right by the next two Hives in the fleet. 'You know we're going to take one hell of a broadside from either direction if they open fire' Sheppard pointed out.

'That's what I'm hoping for' Sammin replied, smiling as he prepared to decloak the ship and transmit the communication the Curia had prepared.

To an outside observer the _Sher-Mal_ would have seemed to shimmer into existence, visible now not only to the naked eye but also the sensors of the Hives and Cruisers. Her Asgard shields snapped up just as she broadcast her warning to the Wraith not to open fire or continue their course towards the Lantean System.

'They're charging weapons' one of the bridge crew, Sheppard thought of her as being the Tactical Officer, reported.

'Charge ours and target the lead hive' Sammin responded.

Another Tollan was watching her own sensors. 'Wraith Darts are being launched from all hostile vessels'

'They keep a few dozen permanently crewed and ready to scramble on each hive' Sheppard noted. 'Give them a few minutes to get their asses into gear and we'll be knee-deep in thousands of them' he said. 'You going to shoot?' he asked.

'Them first' Sammin replied.

'Hives have opened fire' the Tactical Officer said, hoping she sounded calmer and more professional that she felt. This was actually her first time being shot at outside a simulation.

'Return the favour' Sammin responded.

The range was frankly pititful, merely tens of kilometres, but while the Wraith had fired first the fact the Heavy Ion Cannon of the Sher-Mal struck its mark before the first massive plasma bolts lashed against her shields proved just how slow their velocity was. What they lacked in speed they made up for in fury however and the shields were knocked down by an appreciable amount although the lead Hive clearly suffered the worst of it.

The Heavy Ion Cannon was intended to smash down goa'uld shields that could easily absorb the energies of naquadah-enhanced nuclear weapons. If it struck an unshielded Ha'tak it would blow the six-hundred metre diameter mothership to fragments and although the Wraith Hives were far, far larger than a mere goa'uld capital ship having a Heavy Ion Cannon bolt shot directly into one of their massive main engine thrusters was frankly going to smart.

If it had been a Earth crew aboard Sheppard might have been tempted to make a few crude jokes about the Sher-Mal firing its load up the Hive's ass but restricted himself to a grinning exclamation of "Squeal like a piggy Boy" as a titanic secondary explosion triggered by the Heavy Ion Cannon blew the entire back of the Hive off, debris and atmosphere venting into space.

'We're being hit hard Trierarch' the crew member monitoring the shield reported. 'The closest cruisers have manoeuvred to add their fire to the Hives already engaging us and four more hives are coming about.'

'Shields are holding but when we start taking more fire we won't be able to recharge the capacitors fast enough to keep them up' the Tactical Officer added.

Sammin nodded. 'Time to demonstrate that the Tollan don't use the type of cloaking devices they're used to' he said, an evil smile unbefitting his people's civilised ideal spreading across his face.

The Hives were firing in salvos, massive broadsides from their main guns with pauses between as they recharged. Just as two volleys from either direction were about the strike the _Sher-Mal_ it seemed to distort and as the bolts reached her this time instead of the plasma splashing against her shields it simply passed right through and kept going, or to be more precise it kept going until it struck the hiveship on the opposite side of the Tollan warship. Watching the wraith weapons pass through the ship and himself en-route was extremely disconcerting to John Sheppard but he figured it would make for a good story later.

Though they liked to consider themselves far more civilised than the bloodthirsty humans of Earth the Tollan were not humourless like the Aschen and as the two hives managed to put a second broadside into the other before they stopped firing the bridge crew of the Sher-Mal were desperately trying not to laugh. Hulls already weakened by hyperspace travel the damage the hives wrought on each other was considerable and small secondary explosions wracked the sides of the vessels as the now fully-cloaked _Sher-Mal_ moved away.

'Pity we can't beam warheads over to them when we're out-of-phase' Travoc observed as the holographic projection of the armada showed their once neat formation becoming a lot less ordered.

'They're circling the wagons' Sheppard observed. 'Probably orientating themselves so they can support each other but not get hit by crossfire' he reasoned.

'They're not stupid unfortunately' Sammin replied regretfully. 'Alright, bring us five hundred kilometres off from the hostiles, deactivate the cloak again once we're clear and we'll transmit our second warning' he ordered. 'Make ready to beam over the first warhead as soon as we're in phase and can get a target lock with the Asgard Sensors.'

This time the Wraith responded to the transmission from the Tollan ship but in the form of an attempt to transmit a computer virus which the firewalls of the cruiser blocked and swiftly disposed of. 'I think we can take that as another "No" Travoc suggested to Sammin who couldn't help but agree.

'We're under fire again' the tactical officer noted. 'Wraith Darts are also heading towards our position, accelerating hard.'

'Turn us so we can bring the starboard Ion Cannons to bear on the darts' Samin ordered. 'Fire at will and when they enter effective point-defence range engage with the lasers' he said. 'As soon as we can get a sensor lock beam the first warhead to one of the undamaged hiveships' he continued. 'Let's see if this gets their attention' he added.

Inside one of the hives a wraith saw a bright flash behind him and span around to find there was now a silvery-grey device sitting there which hadn't been there before. From its design it was clearly not manufactured by his people and he had just enough time to think he should investigate, or at least raise the alarm, when a considerably brighter flash rendered his thoughts on the matter moot.

Equivalent in explosive yield to roughly eight-thousand Tau'ri Mark VIII naquadah-enhanced warheads going off at the same time in the same place the Tollan device was truly massive overkill, even against a ship three times as long as Atlantis was wide, but as a display of sheer military might it was certainly attention getting. Instantaneously converted into an expanding plasma fireball tens of millions of tons of hiveship blew outwards, incinerated two nearby cruisers and scorched several other vessels.

Making sure to get the message across this was not some freak occurrence shortly afterwards the second warhead the _Sher-Mal_ beamed over turned another hive into a short-lived miniature sun as did warhead number three which vaporised another of the now scattering armada.

The three Ion Cannon emplaced on the side of the Tollan Cruiser facing the Wraith fleet had been rapid-firing for some time, each bolt effortlessly destroying a dart as the next shot cycled. Now they were closer the much smaller Tracking Tracer Cannons opened up and simply cut a swathe through the veritable cloud of darts inbound. Lacking shields and so fragile even a bullet could bring one down it took only a fraction of a second's worth of laser fire to destroy a dart and the TTC's quickly racked up hundreds of kills although the darts kept coming heedless of their losses.

'Think they'll surrender?' Trierarch Sammin asked Travoc.

'No, but if they've got any sense they'll run' Travoc replied, shaking his head sadly at the slaughter.

The tactical officer looked at her display and frowned. 'We are no longer able to get a Sensor Lock on the Wraith ships' she told Sammin. 'They are generating a jamming signal that prevents us beaming any more warheads' she told him. 'ECCM cannot break the jamming.'

'Damn' Sheppard responded glumly. 'I thought it was going too easy.'

Sammin shrugged. 'Three hives destroyed outright plus two cruisers' he said. 'One more hive crippled and two more badly damaged' he noted. 'I think that makes for a successful mission.'

'We could play hit and run, try and knock a few more out with the guns' Sheppard told him.

'Maybe next time Major' Sammin replied, his primary duty was now to get his ship and crew out of here intact. He knew even the phasing cloak wasn't completely foolproof, it could be tracked at least in theory, and if the Wraith could jam Asgard beaming technology they were too capable to take lightly. 'Set course for Atlantis, prepare to engage hyperdrive.'

As the _Sher-Mal_ opened a hyperspace window and jumped away the Wraith started to count their losses and began to analyse what had occurred. Whoever these "Tollan" were they were clearly highly advanced with several technologies even the Lanteans hadn't utilised. They had effective, long-ranged and accurate high-yield energy weapons, _terrifyingly powerful_ explosive devices, some kind of teleportation technology which didn't require a mechanism at both ends of the transmission, advanced cloaking technology which brought you far enough out of phase for matter to physically pass through and vicious close-in anti-fighter defence.

These Tollan, self-stated allies of the Terrans according to their transmissions, were the embodiment of the worst fear of the Wraith. Such a people could simply not be allowed to control Atlantis, who knew what they might be able to do with the knowledge to be found there? They were a nightmare made flesh, the most horrible thing the crews of the hiveships could conceive of, a culture technologically far ahead of the Wraith who actually used that technology intelligently. Atlantis must be destroyed before these interlopers from another galaxy could unlock its secrets.

The last thing the Wraith needed was an enemy all too much like the Lanteans ... minus the near-total military incompetence.

**Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – May 2005**

If he had been hoping to traverse the distance from the Mess Hall to his office without being intercepted on the way Brigadier-General Jack O'Neill was sorely disappointed. So far he had been subjected to a rant from the usually relaxed Doctor Bill Lee regarding the failure to hire additional research staff then after he managed to escape the scientist Colonel Rundell, the base's typically underworked Public Affairs Liaison, insisted on discussing the forthcoming visit by the UN Secretary General for five long minutes. After managing to extract himself from a discussion of suitable bunting, directing Rundell in the direction of Daniel who judging by the decor of his house had a "flair for that kind of thing", O'Neill had nearly reached his office when Colonel Ferretti caught up with him waving a copy of the new orders.

'This is a joke right Sir?' Ferretti asked curtly, the man looked peeved O'Neill decided.

'No Colonel, those are the orders from on-high relayed down to you via me' O'Neill replied. 'Come inside and close the door' he told him, continuing the short distance onto his office and going inside.

'You're taking us out of the game' Ferretti protested as soon as they were able to talk a little more freely than they could in the corridor.

O'Neill sighed. 'SG-2 is an Exploration Team not a combat one' he pointed out. 'The galaxy has gone totally nuts the last couple of weeks, in case you haven't noticed, and we're not in the exploration business for the foreseeable future' he said. 'We're concentrating on the all-out war business.'

'Come on Jack' Ferretti protested. 'SG-2 has seen as much action as any other team here' he argued. 'I remember covering your ass plenty of times when you needed backup' he reminded his commanding officer.

'It's not just you Louis' O'Neill replied. 'I've already heard the same thing from Carter' he said. 'SG-1 isn't going out either you know' he told the commanding officer of SG-2. 'This is no time to have physicists and archaeologists running around battlefields' he continued. 'Just because she's a small target it doesn't make it any smarter to have Hailey out there serving as infantry as it does Sam Carter, face-it they're a lot less replaceable than we are.'

Ferretti thought about that, it was hard to argue the point. The fact was that since she had joined his team SG-2's compact and "feisty" answer to Samantha Carter had made it very clear just how damn smart and capable she was. Getting those particular brains blown out in a firefight would be a criminal waste of talent. That was what X-COM Troopers and the Marines were for. 'Okay, I can see how our usual work is low priority right now, and I've got team members best kept off the front line, but I can still be out there doing the job' he maintained.

'And if you get killed permanently who's going to boss SG-2 when things are sane again?' O'Neill asked rhetorically. 'Or at least as sane as they ever get' he added. 'You've been in this since we first went to Abydos and kicked Ra's ass and you've dragged your team around the galaxy and racked up more missions through the gate than just about anyone else' he said. 'Face it, reputation counts and you're one of the old-guard, someone that the rookies and replacements have faith in because you've done it, seen it and kicked the crap out of the goa'uld that owns it.'

'I just don't want to be sat on the bench when the game is warming up Jack' Ferretti replied.

'Welcome to my life' O'Neill responded wryly. 'At least you know you'll be out there having fun again eventually, all I can look forward to now is another promotion' he said with obvious distaste at the idea.

'Commander Sharp outranks you and he still gets out there' Ferretti pointed out.

O'Neill smiled. 'He doesn't have to account himself to the Joint Chiefs of Staff' he replied. 'And a lot of the time he acts like he doesn't think he needs to account himself to God either' he continued. 'I just don't have that much leeway.'

Ferretti looked thoughtful. 'So what exactly do you want us to do?' he asked.

'I might still need you to get out there at short notice so I can't just say take a few days leave' O'Neill replied. 'Carter is going to Area 51 to play with alien gadgets and I can see that being Hailey's idea of fun too so she could join her, it's only seconds away by transporter platform if we need them back, as for you...'

'I'm not doing any of your paperwork Jack' Ferretti said quickly, as usual there was a pile of documents and files heaped on the general's desk awaiting his attention. He knew Carter sometimes found herself helping their CO with that, after unfortunately setting the precedent that she would when the backlog got bad enough, but he didn't plan to make that mistake himself.

O'Neill frowned. 'It would be good development for when you get your first star' he suggested.

'Oh yeah because I'm really going to be trying to get above Colonel after hearing how much you like it' Ferretti replied sardonically, rolling his eyes.

'Damn, I need to start planning these talks ahead so I don't paint myself into a corner' O'Neill responded glumly before checking his watch. 'Sorry Louis I'm expecting another appointment. We'll talk again afterwards' he promised.

'I'll be around, it's not like I'm going anywhere Sir' Ferretti replied.

After Ferretti left O'Neill had a couple of minutes to hide the paperwork on his desk so his next visitor couldn't peek at or swipe any of it, he wouldn't put anything past the man.

'Hey Jack' Harry Maybourne said brightly as his smiling face poked around the open door to O'Neill's office. 'I hear it was your idea to bring me out of retirement?'

'We've got a problem with scheming, amoral, sneaky ex-NID people' O'Neill responded. 'Who better to send after them than the man who is basically the epitome of all that is worst about the NID made flesh?' he asked rhetorically. 'Lots of flesh' he added.

'That's not fair Jack' Maybourne replied, entering and sitting down uninvited, the armed Marine who had accompanied him from the gateroom remaining outside. 'At least not the bit at the end' he said. 'I've lost a few pounds recently and it looks like you're gaining a few yourself thanks to the desk job' he observed.

O'Neill shifted position in his chair, straitening up. He had put on some weight now his lifestyle was less physically active and he kept meaning to put in more time on the treadmill so the comment stung. 'Nice outfit' he said sarcastically.

Maybourne shrugged. 'King Arkhan remember' he said, removing his leather "crown". 'I'm going to need another set of clothes if I'm going to get out there and track down the bad guys.'

'We hauled your stuff out of storage for you' O'Neill replied. 'Everything except your uniform which I don't think you deserve' he said.

'You wound me Jack' Maybourne responded, feigning hurt. 'Here I am, voluntarily returning to aid the country of my birth and my home-planet and you still cast aspersions against my character.'

'Harry, it's the defects in your character that make you so damn valuable and you know it' O'Neill replied.

'Yeah' Maybourne conceded. 'It is nice to be in demand for my talents' he admitted, grinning.

'I wasn't sure you'd come, you do have a pretty sweet deal on that planet you set yourself up as ruler of' O'Neill told him.

'Well the offer of formal recognition was nice' Maybourne replied. 'I might be able to wrangle a good aid and development package from the UN for my world once that goes through.'

'So the poor deluded saps that made you King love you even more?' O'Neill asked.

Maybourne shook his head sadly. 'I wouldn't expect someone of your suspicious nature to believe that their well-being really matters to me so maybe you'd accept it's just easier to be a self-serving absolute monarch when I keep the guilt of exploiting them to a minimum?'

'That I can buy' O'Neill agreed.

'Anyhow, just when I thought I was out they pull me back in' Maybourne said, trying to do an impression of Michael Corleone. 'So who am I working with?' he asked.

'The NID are assigning you to an agent named Barrett' O'Neill replied.

Maybourne laughed. 'I know him, one of those goody-goody sanctimonious types' he said. 'He'll definitely need my help if we're going to achieve anything.'

'And I'm assigning you Sergeant Andianov' O'Neill told him.

'Your pet Russian gunslinger?' Maybourne responded quizzically before smiling. 'I guess the idea is that she'll shoot me if I step too far out of line?'

'Officially she's there to represent X-COM and keep you alive, seeing as how you're a visiting head-of-state' O'Neill replied. 'And yes she'll shoot you if your allegiances wander again' he added.

'Where's the trust Jack?' Maybourne asked sweetly.

'I might have found myself liking you Harry, despite my best judgement, but trust isn't on the cards' O'Neill replied honestly.

'I guess I can live with that' Maybourne said. 'By the way, Aikaterina said to tell you that you're welcome to visit whenever you like' he told him. 'She's got it into her head you're my best friend' he continued. 'She thinks I'm here visiting you for a few weeks.'

'Lying to your wife is not a good habit to get into Harry' O'Neill warned.

'She'd worry if she thought I was doing something that might be dangerous' Maybourne replied. 'Oh and she's also got this idea that since you're my best friend and you're not married she needs to find you a wife' he said, trying not to laugh. 'She's already putting together a short-list of suitable girls from the local villages.'

O'Neill groaned. 'Couldn't you tell her I'm engaged or something?' he asked.

'I could but a trusted advisor told me that lying to my wife wouldn't be a good habit to get into' Maybourne replied, just about able to keep a straight face.

'And once again something I said earlier in a conversation bites me on the ass before the end of it' O'Neill complained to the universe.

**Interstellar Space – Pegasus Galaxy – May 2005**

It had taken the wraith fleet days to recover from their encounter with the _Sher-Mal_. Even among those hives which hadn't been directly struck by weapons fire hulls already damaged by hyperspace flight had in some cases been badly scorched by proximity to the massive explosions which had incinerated several of the huge vessels and regeneration took time. When they finally got underway again, now making even shorter hops than before with pauses between to allow ships to repair themselves to full capability, the wraith were badly behind schedule and paranoid about what they might run into next as they gradually made their way to Atlantis.

Possessing much faster vessels the humans opposing them could dictate when the next battle would take place and it was decided to confront the wraith just after they arrived in normal space during what would likely be their final stopover before the Lantean System. Although the short hops the wraith were making would mean their radiation-damaged hulls weren't quite as weakened and vulnerable as they usually were after a hyperspace journey they would still be less able to absorb fire from directed energy weapons if you hit them at the optimum moment and with everything you had.

Colonel Steven Caldwell had counted himself lucky when they gave him command of _Daedalus_, the first 304 class battlecruiser to be built at the Cydonia Shipyards. After the Ha'tak _Enterprise_ had been lost under his command he wasn't sure if they would ever give him another vessel but the fact that _Enterprise_ had dished out plenty of hurt herself before succumbing to a foe vastly superior in number looked good enough in his résumé to get him another ship.

Unlike the two ships of the BC-303 class which preceded her the _Daedalus_ was designed to incorporate Asgard and other advanced technologies from the beginning. Whereas the _Prometheus_ and _Atlas_ were largely cobbled together from what was available "off-the-shelf" the same was not true of the Daedalus which was technically superior in all respects, as well as somewhat larger. You could put this ship up against three goa'uld Ha'tak motherships at once and it would pound them to scrap Caldwell thought with confidence as he sat in his command chair on the bridge, the problem right now however was that he wasn't quite as sure how it would stand up to a fleet of enemy ships that were larger than Mount Everest.

Even the _Sher-Mal_ which was somewhat larger than the Daedalus and had entered normal space beside her was tiny compared to the ships lying hundreds of kilometres away they were about to engage and they themselves vastly outweighed the two flights of five Avenger Corvettes apiece that had formed up alongside them. While it was true that the little ships punched well above their weight this wasn't so much David versus Goliath as it was an ant versus a tyrannosaur Caldwell thought as he ordered his sixteen F-302X fighters to launch. At least they were assigned the task of taking on craft in their own weight-class, the tiny wraith aerospace fighters known as "Darts", although being outnumbered hundreds to one wasn't exactly ideal.

'Sir, the _Sher-Mal_ is transmitting to the wraith fleet warning them that unless they surrender they will be fired upon' Captain Meyers reported from the pilot's position.

'I'm sure the wraith are terrified' Caldwell replied wryly. 'Weapon's Officer, what's our status?' he asked.

Captain Kleinman looked up from his console momentarily. 'Primary Plasma Beam Cannon is charging, Rippers are spinning up' he reported first. 'Secondary Plasma Beam cannons one through eight are all showing green and ready, Laser Anti-Aircraft and Point-Defence turrets are charged and ready, all VLS missile tubes ready to fire, bow torpedo tubes ready to fire.'

'I want the shields given priority for reactor power, I'd rather take out a few less of them this time around and live to fight another day than go down in a blaze of glory surrounded by a couple more knocked-out enemy vessels' Caldwell said. 'I was told if I went home without my ship again they'd take it out of my pay and I bet they'd use a sarcophagus to keep me alive and in the service long enough for me to do it too' he added in a slightly uncharacteristic joke which caused some laughter on the bridge. Sometimes it helped to lighten the mood he knew.

'The wraith vessels are manoeuvring' Meyers informed the rest of the bridge.

'Sensors showing that they are charging weapons, I don't think they're taking up the surrender offer Sir' Kleinman added.

Well it would have been an anti-climax to travel three million light-years getting here if they had' Caldwell replied.

'_Sher-Mal_ is firing missiles' Kleinman reported. 'Missiles have now disappeared from sensors' he added.

'Beaming over the warheads might have been cheaper but I guess the Tollan want to show the wraith they've got more than one way to deliver their ordnance' Caldwell surmised as the phase-shifted missiles hurtled towards their targets.

'Wraith have opened fire on us' Meyer announced. 'Sher-Mal is providing us with sensor data and suggesting targets.'

'Take evasive action, prepare to launch torpedoes at closest suggested target' Caldwell ordered as the bolts of wraith plasma streaked towards them. 'Tell the Avengers and the 302's, engage at will and happy hunting.'

The first of the two missiles the _Sher-Mal_ had fired shifted back into normal space just before it ploughed into the side of a hiveship and contact-detonated. Rendered invisible and immune to interception by it's phase-shifting capability these weapons were Tollana's ultimate in ultimate deterrents against the System Lords and the knowledge of their mere existence had frightened even Anubis enough for him to keep well clear of the Tollan. Not exploding in the heart of the hive like the warheads beamed over in the previous battle had been much of the energy released by the detonation was lost to the vacuum of space but the remainder which the hive did absorb was more than enough to destroy it utterly in a now almost familiar plasma fireball.

If the Tollan were hoping that the wraith might surrender now they were very much mistaken. The _Sher-Mal_ carried more missiles but only had two launch tubes and she reloaded them as she now additionally opened up with her Heavy Ion Cannon and the two standard models that could be fired forward while her bow was pointed at the enemy.

_Daedalus_ now fired her own first salvo. The Mark 1 Fusion-Torpedo was the successor to the original "Fusion Ball" weapons carried by the BC-303's in an anti capital-ship role which had been basically just scaled up versions of the hand-held "Blaster Bomb" guided mini-nukes Loki issued his troops. In fact the front end of the Fusion-Torpedo was much the same weapon, it was just strapped to the front of a much larger first-stage consisting of the gravity/induction drive from an F-302. The first stage provided the weapon with a much greater effective range and meant the elerium fuel of the second stage could be used for manoeuvring and avoiding point-defence fire rather than simply getting the warhead to its target.

With the range only measured in hundreds of kilometres the first stages of the four Fusion-Torpedoes the Daedalus fired from her bow tubes burned up all their fuel at maximum rate, built-in afterburners opened up all the way and swiftly accelerating their payloads to a huge velocity. Once the first stages ran dry the second stage separated and accelerated away before starting a series of rapid and random manoeuvres, jinking to throw off the fire coming from the myriad darts now desperately trying to shoot them down.

Three of the warheads reached their targets, the darts had been lucky to hit one of them, but the remaining ones that got through reached their mark and contact detonated. The twelve-hundred megaton naquadah-enhanced warheads were nothing compared to the Tollan UFT Bombs but they still blasted three massive holes you could fit a Ha'tak into in the side of the hive, crippling it as a wave of secondary explosions both inside and across the surface of the ship began.

As the _Sher-Mal_ fired its next phase-shifting missiles the the Tollan Cruiser detected that the wraith ships were now broadcasting high-powered energy on a new frequency. They realised what it was when the missiles they had fired got within a hundred kilometres of the nearest wraith capital ship and suddenly became visible again both to sensors and the naked eye.

'Sir the Wraith are broadcasting some kind of energy like a Transphase Eradication Rod puts out' Meyer informed Caldwell. 'It's letting them target and engage the Tollan missiles.'

'How the hell are they doing that?' Caldwell asked in astonishment. 'How would they even know what to _try_?' he queried in confusion.

'No idea Sir, in any case it's working for them' Meyer replied. 'The Tollan missiles aren't all that fast or manoeuvrable' she said. 'The wraith are using their darts like a defence screen.'

'Wonderful' Caldwell responded sardonically. 'We wouldn't be able to get our tactical missiles through either' he complained. The cost of a Mark 1 Fusion-Torpedo meant that most of the warheads carried by _Daedalus_ were mounted on cheaper conventional missiles fired from her VLS tubes. 'Alright we've got twelve more torpedoes, so we'll use them up and then see what we can do with the guns' he decided.

Her missile armament rendered ineffective the _Sher-Mal_ still had plenty of punch and bolts from her Heavy Ion Cannon were already cratering wraith hives and blasting huge chunks off the smaller cruisers when the wraith discovered that the tiny Avengers they had been ignoring until now were more of a problem than they might have thought. Armed with a pair of elerium plasma-beams that could each one-shot a goa'uld Al'kesh at over fifty kilometres and with a rotary-staff-cannon mounted in the rear bay firing forward over the cockpit the corvettes targeted wraith cruisers, concentrating their fire at points at which they knew thanks to the study of the cruiser found on the Lantean ocean floor were the weakest. Faster than the darts, at least as long as their elerium fuel held out which wouldn't be too long if they had to keep evading them, the Avengers kept moving so they wouldn't be overwhelmed and they slashed at the smaller ships escorting the hives inflicting what they hoped would accumulate into the death of a thousand cuts.

As for the sixteen F-302X fighters their pilots were soon overjoyed to find out they could accelerate marginally harder going in reverse than a wraith dart could forwards. This soon developed into a mad dash with Grim Reapers going backwards at full throttle picking off the squadrons of darts pursuing each of them one by one with the front-firing lasers mounted internally in their wing-roots. Every time the wraith realised the apparent futility of it and broke away, the F-302 pilots would head for the nearest wraith capital ship and fire the plasma-beams slung on the inner pylons under their own wings at them until the darts gave chase again.

_Daedalus_ picked a wraith hive as a target of its own and closed to where it could accurately put down fire on the weaker points of the hull with its secondary armament, including the dart launch bays and weapon emplacements.

As the _Daedalus_ moved to within fifty kilometres from its prey the eight beam turrets on the 304 began to fire, each beam cutting deep into the hull triggering internal explosions as the beam of superheated relativistic plasma chewed through the organic hull. The same weapons as were carried on the Avengers and Grim Reapers the beam cannons could recharge and fire again every twelve seconds and they hurt, though not as much as the main gun did when Colonel Caldwell ordered Kleinman to unleash it.

With over six times the raw firepower of the smaller plasma beam cannon and designed to have a longer beam duration the main gun lanced through the armour on the hive almost like it wasn't there and cut deep into the heart of the wraith vessel. Meanwhile the twin rotary-staff-cannon mounted to its left and right began to fire continually, the relentless pummelling sending pieces of the hive spiralling into space.

Closing in meant that _Daedalus_ was taking more fire itself however. At long range the relatively low velocity of wraith bolts meant you could avoid them by making random changes in position but at this range even though the battlecruiser wasn't being stupid enough to stay still the _Deadalus_ was nonetheless being struck increasingly often, Asgard shields straining to recharge between each blow, sucking all the energy they could from the ships naquadah reactors.

The second shot from the main gun on the BC-303 hit something vital and not only did the hive stop manoeuvring all its own guns fell silent. Colonel Caldwell didn't have the luxury of finishing it off, he was now surrounded by a swarm of drones and he wanted to try and cripple another hive before he had to flee. Turning the nose of the _Daedalus_ about the bridge crew cheered when they almost by complete accident blew twenty or more darts in tight formation to pieces with the still firing twin rippers and then shot a hole right through a wraith cruiser with the main gun when they found themselves lined up with the unfortunate vessel.

In addition to the eight plasma-beam turrets the _Daedalus_ also carried twenty-four laser cannons intended to deal with enemy fighters and these had been firing continually ever since darts entered their effective targeting range. Set to fire rapid pulses they weren't as effective as the more advanced and power-hungry Tracking Tracer Cannon that made it near-suicide for a dart to get near the Sher-Mal but they were still doing a sterling job of bringing down wraith fighters until the wraith realised that the number of darts already lost in the fight was well over a thousand and climbing fast.

With the _Sher-Mal_ now acting as long-range fire-support, a Heavy Ion Cannon bolt smashing the nose off a cruiser which was trying to bring its guns to bear on the _Daedalus_, Colonel Caldwell engaged another hive with his beam weapons for a short while before he realised that with less darts about it might be worth trying to salvo off his VLS batteries. Launching missiles from all sixteen tubes at once most were still intercepted but the ones that got through hit the target hive hard enough to cause its reactors to breach and as the hive exploded in a blinding flash Daedalus turned about and using her Hebridan Ion Engines accelerated away from the fight.

The F-302X fighters were already fleeing for the safety offered by the gun batteries of the _Sher-Mal_, afterburners kept on as long as possible as their pilots tried to judge how much elerium they could afford to still burn. Most of the Avengers had already left the fight, they only carried a hundred shots worth of elerium for their plasma beams and once that was used up they followed their standing orders and accelerated away, jumping into hyperspace once clear of any darts and heading back for Atlantis.

'He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day' Caldwell quoted as the F-302's came back aboard. Those wraith ships which were still capable of entering hyperspace had begun to leave themselves after taking on as many darts as they could. There were still a few crippled Hives and Cruisers left behind and the _Sher-Mal_ put another well-placed Heavy Ion Cannon bolt into each of them to ensure they would stay crippled for a good long time before the two human warships set course for Atlantis themselves.

Caldwell would have finished the Wraith off personally if it had been his call but Sammin on the Sher-Mal had considered that just a little too much like murder for comfort and the _Daedalus_ couldn't do it on her own.

Six hours later the refuelled and re-armed Avengers returned on Colonel Vaselov's order and shot the disabled wraith ships up again just in case they were faking.

* * *

Note from the Author:

_The Daedalus used Asgard Transport Beaming to teleport nuclear warheads onto Hiveships and destroy them in SGA episode 2:01 The Seige (Part 3). The Wraith quickly managed to jam the beams so it couldn't be used to destroy all of them but it was a very effective tactic while it lasted._ _The ability of the Tollan to phase through solid matter was first seen in SG-1 episode 1:17 Enigma. Similar technology (of de-ascended Ancient origin) was later used as protection against Ori weaponry (you vanish from sight and the weapon-fire simply goes right through without causing damage). Having the two hives either side of the Tollan Cruiser put a broadside into each other was pure comedy gold to my way of thinking._ _Cloaking devices are not perfect in stargate. TER's could be used to detect Nirrti's personal cloaking devices. The upgraded sensors Anubis introduced on his ships could detect other vessels through goa'uld cloaks and the Superhive in SGA episode 5:20 could even detect Puddle-Jumpers (previously undetectable)._ _Tracking Tracer Cannon are the final stage of laser development in X-COM: Interceptor. Rather than pulses they fire a lower-powered but continuous beam which cuts through shields faster than they can re-charge. Thanks to advanced targeting systems, gimballed mounts (and of course being lasers with beams travelling at 186,000 miles per second) they also never miss as long as you're in range. The Tollan have the power-generation and other technology needed to take the original X-COM lasers and improve them to the point they would be death-incarnate for something like a Wraith Dart._

___Louis Ferretti, commander of SG-2 which is an exploration team like SG-1, was with O'Neill on Abydos during the very first mission, I've had him stick around the stargate program longer than he did in canon. With the messy multi-sided war going on there isn't as much call for the kind of non-combat-heavy missions SG-1 and SG-2 get involved with so Ferretti and Carter are "grounded" for now. Putting Jennifer Hailey on SG-2 seemed like a good place for her, it gives Ferretti his own Mini-Carter. __Harold Maybourne, AKA "King Arkhan", is back to help deal with the problem they're having with rogue NID agents (specifically in the aftermath of their attack on a Tok'ra base using a ship they obtained from Loki). Malcolm Barrett is a "clean" NID agent featured in a few episodes._

_____Colonel Steven Caldwell, now Commanding Officer of the 304 Class ship Daedalus was captain of the captured Ha'tak Enterprise during the attack Anubis made on Earth (XSGCOM: Goa'uld Defence chapter 52). Captains Meyer and Kleinman were on his bridge crew when he first brought Daedalus to Pegasus. __The main gun on the Daedalus is basically a scaled up version of the standard elerium Plasma Beams carried in her secondary turrets and on smaller XSGCOM craft. I've pegged it at about the same firepower as a Base-Defence Plasma Beam Cannon from the first X-COM game and it far eclipses the combined power of the two cannons taken from Sectoid Battleships that arm the Atlas for example. __In canon the 304 Class carries 32 railguns and 16 VLS missile tubes. Here the railgun turrets are replaced by 8 plasma beam cannon and 24 laser cannons (all similarly sized to a stargate railgun) but the VLS battery is the same. The four bow-mounted torpedo tubes (firing naq-enhanced Fusion-Balls stuck on a gravity/induction drive) provide a more effective (and more expensive) missile armament which along with the main beam and the "rippers" (as mounted on the 303's) mean that the XSGCOM version of the 304 is actually capable of taking on large enemy ships until the canon version (before it got Asgard Plasma Beam Weapons). __In X-COM: Interceptor if you're flying a high-performance fighter with good engines against older, slower enemy designs you can gain yourself time to line up shots by going backwards while they gradually gain on you. The F-302X here is just about able to outrun a Dart going backwards although it's using up a lot of fuel doing so. Elerium powered fighters are very fast but they burn very expensive fuel very quickly. In a long engagement the Grim Reapers would be running on empty tanks long before the Darts were out of power. It's a nice trick the 302's were pulling but it only works for a short while. __The Transphase Eradication Rod was used by the Goa'uld to detect the phase-shifted Reetou. As to how the Wraith were able to do this... well you'll have to wait and see!_  


___Just one quick announcement. The first story in this series has just won First Place in its category in the TtH **Crossing Over Awards 2010** (Best Non AtS/BtVS Crossover). I'm very pleased as you might guess. :-D_


	19. Chapter 19

_I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

**Omega Site – PX0-999 (Terra Nova) – June 2005**

With his helmet and body armour on, side-handle baton, a couple of grenades, a trinium-handled P1-A1 Plasma Pistol hanging from his belt and with an L2-A3 hanging off his backpack Commander Russell Sharp made for a suitably intimidating sight although his reputation and war record alone would have ensured he had the full attention of the parade of new recruits formed up before him. 'Good morning Troopers' Sharp addressed them. Although his body clock often got screwed up by gate travel to different worlds he was pretty sure it _was_morning in this part of Terra Nova although you'd have to travel upwards through a lot of rock to see the sun rising above the bunker complex.

'Good morning Sir' they chorused back.

Sharp looked along their ranks, they didn't have the far-away look in their eyes or the hyper-alert body-language of veteran X-COM squaddies yet but the next stage of their training and a few missions would hopefully bring out their predatory instinct. They were all Special Forces of course, the majority drawn from the various armies of Earth with a few Langarans, Tagreans, Orbanians and Pangarans mixed in, but X-COM prided itself in turning the merely elite into the kind of soldiers who when told they had a fifty/fifty chance of returning alive from the next mission would breathe a sigh of relief and think "I like those odds".

'Some of you may have already heard some of what I'm about to tell you but I've got a good memory for faces and I hold a grudge so you'd better all still look awake and interested' Sharp told them, smiling just enough that they knew he was only being semi-serious. 'Firstly I'm sorry I wasn't around to welcome you all properly to Terra Nova when you first arrived but I've been even busier than normal recently and beating up on the goa'uld has been eating into my schedule' he said. His battle-gear wasn't just for show, after this he was off on another mission straight away attacking a recently established forward operating base being used by the Replicator-Allied System Lords in their war against Baal.

'Anyhow' Sharp continued, 'I'm sure you're all getting settled into your daily routines and I'm certain you'll be pleased to hear that soon you'll graduate from getting shot with zats to toughen you up to being shot with Intars in training exercises instead' he advised them. 'It doesn't hurt anywhere near as much' he said before smiling evilly. 'On the other hand we can shoot you several times in quick succession with an Intar and not kill you which saving on sarcophagus time' he added. The fact it _did_hurt to get shot by an Intar made them excellent training tools which were far more effective than other weapon simulators like MILES. Nothing motivates the body and concentrates the mind more than knowing it's going to hurt like a son-of-a-bitch if you screw up and X-COM never professed to be a caring, humane organisation, results were all that counted and negative reinforcement worked.

Sharp continued to smile. 'Don't worry too much about the Intars though' he advised. 'Even at full power they can't kill you, although if you're male and get hit in the wrong place you might wish it had at the time' he said, smile replaced by a grimace as the memory of it happening to him once came rushing back.

In reality it wasn't actually the Zat'nik'tels or the Intars which represented the most unpleasant part of the process X-COM now used to prepare new recruits for battle however. After a couple of weeks of being pitted against veterans in training exercises they would start to be cycled through the new-model Virtual Reality Pods which had been developed from the original Volsinni design. When your mind was interfaced with the machines you could be placed in any scenario and the simulation would seem perfectly real as you played through it. By extracting the memories of UFO Retrieval Missions from X-COM soldiers who had participated in them rookies could experience what it was like to fight Loki's armies in early 1999, taking assault rifles up against plasma weapons and getting ripped apart by Chryssalids (pain included, only slightly dialled down). After a week of being put through those simulations at least four times a day more recent missions against the goa'uld were added to the training cycle for another three weeks and then the recruit was deemed ready to go on their first real mission.

X-COM training by mid-2005 was terrifying, painful, stressful and hard with a very high drop-out rate. On the plus side fighting Jaffa or Wraith for real seemed like a nice stress-free vacation afterwards and it resulted in soldiers comparable in skill to those who had survived the 1999-2000 campaign against Loki without having to kill off three quarters of them in the process. In the longer-term the R&D people thought they might be able to reduce the training period by several weeks by utilising the Memory Transfer technology the Galarans were working on, simply transferring the combat experiences of veteran squaddies into the minds of rookies, but that looked problematic so far and it might not be possible for a year or two at least.

'Now I know you're all gnawing at the bit' Sharp told the rookies, 'itching to get out there shooting holes in Jaffa and shattering replicator bugs but you've still got to prove you're crazy and mean enough to wear the X-COM insignia on your uniform while doing it' he said. 'The best advice I can give you is that even though it's voluntary you _do_want to start popping the pills we give out and taking the injections because in this organisation when we ask for a hundred and ten percent we mean it' he continued. 'There's an unofficial motto in X-COM: "Losers don't do drugs", take it to heart' he advised.

Not being bound by the rules of the FDA or any other body that regulated pharmaceutical trials had allowed X-COM R&D to make continuing strides in developing drugs that would increase Trooper effectiveness. The latest strand of research was based around analysis of the Wraith Enzyme that kept their prey alive during feeding and it looked extremely promising so far according to the reports that crossed Sharp's desk. Injecting small amounts of the enzyme regularly would boost physical performance, particular strength and endurance, while a parallel strand of research sought to develop what the biochemists were jokingly calling a "Berserker Pack" based around injecting a massive dose of the enzyme along with adrenaline to produce a massive, if short-lived, boost in strength and pain tolerance. So far preliminary study showed it would most likely kill you but hopes were high that a mix of beta-cantin and tretonin injected concurrently might stop your heart exploding in your chest after a couple of minutes and keep you alive until the enzyme was flushed out of your system.

The sheer volume of technology arriving from Pegasus was swamping the ability of Earth to keep up, even with Tollan help and increasing outsourcing of some projects to the Optricans. The latter were currently throwing much of their R&D resources at developing a puddle-jumper like fighter/light transport that could carry their Air-Mobile Brigades through the stargate allowing for rapid deployment of forces anywhere within the gate network. Thanks to the design limitations presented by the stargate the prototype in fact looked very much like a stretched puddle-jumper only with side windows in the cockpit to increase visibility and wide gull-wing side doors as well as a rear ramp.

Zrbite, the Aquatoid power source, was proving to be even stranger than first thought. Aquatoid devices sent to the Milky Way via stargate would not function when they arrived and this was soon found to be due to the Zrbite now being inert. If sent back they started to work again immediately which was leading some scientists to theorise Zrbite worked by acting like a receiver for wireless energy transmission. The crystal might be the means to connect to a subspace-based galactic version of Nikola Tesla's ideas of turning the atmosphere into the power-grid which was certainly an impressive undertaking and a notion which was quite concerning given the technology and understanding of physics required to make something like that work.

If any of the wraith prisoners transferred from Atlantis to Earth had been expecting their situation to improve they were rudely awakened from that belief when they discovered that the Alien Containment Cells at Area 51 were even smaller and more spartan than their previous accommodation and the human in charge of their "care" was not only inordinately more horrible than they had thought possible she wasn't actually human either.

While most other captured goa'uld had been long-ago handed over to the Tok'ra to be extracted from the host, tried and executed, Nirrti had proven to be so useful she now not only had proper quarters instead of a cell but several staff reporting to her. After experiencing defiance and "insolence" from the wraith queen in particular Nirrti had requested to temporarily obtain the use of a particularly effective piece of goa'uld technology and with eyes glowing had slammed the queen around a cell with a kara-kesh for a while before willingly giving back the ribbon device and heading back to her rooms with a deep sense of satisfaction. The other wraith took the hint and thereafter became far more compliant, not even daring to complain at being given nothing but food animals to consume and making sure not to make eye-contact with the vicious bitch in the lab-coat and sari.

Sharp had continued his pep talk to the rookies for a while, telling a few jokes mixed in with some very real assessments of the war, or rather wars, and how they would play their part in defending the human race. Checking his watch he realised he needed to wrap this up and remembered something he was supposed to tell them. 'Okay Troopers' he said, 'just one more thing before I let you go and you don't have to pretend to laugh at my jokes any more' he continued. 'There have been a few anonymous complaints through diplomatic channels, I'm guessing from the Tok'ra and Free Jaffa, about X-COM soldiers and other personnel saying things that bother our allies' he told them.

Sharp looked around at the rookies. 'I know that for some the use of the term "Tau'ri" is irritating because it's a goa'uld word' he said. 'I've even heard it referred to as an offensive "slave name" we shouldn't use' he told them. 'Now it doesn't bother me personally being called Tau'ri, mainly because it's become a label the System Lords fear, but if anybody wants to follow the bandwagon coming out of Pegasus by using the Ancient term "Terran" instead that's fine' he continued. 'However the IOA and United Worlds have forcefully objected to the spreading habit of referring to the Tau'ri Protectorate in front of our allies as being the "Terran Empire" because it's making certain groups twitchy' he announced, trying to keep a straight face. 'Also rumours of a secret treaty between Earth, Tollana, Optrica and others to divide up the galaxy after the goa'uld are beaten aren't true, particularly the parts about putting the surviving Jaffa on reservations.'

Commander Sharp rested his right hand on the handle of his pistol. 'To be honest I don't know why anyone would have believed that rumour anyway' he said. 'Since when were Jaffa dangerous enough on the loose to warrant rounding them up?' he asked rhetorically. 'I guess they've just got an inflated sense of their own importance and how much of a threat they are' he reasoned. 'Shit, there's more chance of those petty fucking gangsters based out of Lucia making a play for galactic domination' he said to himself, laughing.

**Atlantis – Pegasus Galaxy – June 2005**

Configuring the holographic display chamber to act as an adjunct of the command centre had taken the best part of three days, including figuring out how they were going to manage it, but as Colonel Vaslov entered and saw the three-dimensional image of Lantea floating in space, it's single large moon shown in orbit along with the location of the various artificial satellites, he realised it was well worth the trouble. It wasn't just the aesthetic issue, it was simply so much easier to understand a three-dimensional battleground if you weren't looking at it on a two-dimensional screen.

'Want me to zoom out and show you where the Wraith are Sir?' Chuck, the assigned hologram operator asked from the other side of the room. He was sat at a recently installed terminal, looking between his own computer screen and the projected image.

'Please do Sergeant' Vasilov replied, Lantea and its moon rapidly shrinking in size as the scale of the image shifted to show a volume of space roughly ten times the original diameter. 'So that is the Wraith Fleet?' he asked rhetorically, looking at the cluster of red dots which showed where the enemy had arrived nearly an hour ago only to remain stationary in the same position ever since. 'Centre on them and zoom in again please' he requested.

'Yes Sir' Chuck replied, doing as he was ordered, the red dots spreading out and eventually becoming tiny images of hiveships and smaller cruisers arranged in a pattern so they could best protect each other.

At this scale the thousands of darts surrounding the armada were just barely visible as a swarm of minute red dots that moved almost like a rolling mist and for a moment Vaselov idly wished he could just grab a can of insect spray to deal with the things rather than climb into the cockpit of his F-302. On the other hand swatting them with laser-cannon would be a great deal of fun he thought.

The Hologram Room used up quite a lot of power, Vaselov was told, but that really didn't matter so much these days. The old Geothermal Drilling platform had been moved to a position below Atlantis on the seabed and now provided much of the cities regular power requirements with naquadah reactors most of the rest. There was even an emergency backup power-supply of sorts in the form of the Tollan Stargate Capacitor which could flow electricity back into the city grid if required, not to mention the carefully husbanded ZPM's of course.

'Oh Colonel, here you are' one of the cities two resident Elizabeth Weir's said, walking in. It was the blond one meaning she was the time-traveller not the one actually in charge of Atlantis. 'Still just hanging there doing nothing?' she asked, looking at the projections of the Wraith ships.

Vaselov smiled. 'They are not doing _nothing_ Doctor Weir' he corrected her. 'They are continuing to expand their search pattern looking for the _Sher-Mal_but as yet of course with no success' he said in an amused tone.

'Not looking out there they won't' Weir replied.

'They are also conducting long-range scans of Lantea and will have already detected the _Daedalus_and our Avenger Corvettes in orbit' Vaselov noted.

'But not our defence satellites?' Weir queried.

The Russian shook his head. 'Not at that range' he said. 'Their new active transphase sensors still only have a range of hundreds of kilometres at best from what we can determine' he told her. 'None of their ships have ventured anywhere near us so far.'

'Not even the scouts they've modified?' Weir asked.

'No but I'm sure they'll send a few of them ahead of the fleet along with a large screening force of darts once they decide to make their move on the city' Vaselov replied. 'We are only fortunate that the Ancient Cloaking Technology used by the Puddle-Jumpers works on a very different principle to the phase-based Goa'uld designs we copied or else we would not be able to spring an important part of our surprise welcome party on them.'

Weir looked at the tiny hiveships again. 'It's strange but I expected them to come straight at us as soon as they arrived' she told the Colonel.

'Hyperspace travel weakens their hulls' Vaselov explained. 'Even though their last hop was only a handful of light-years they likely want to only seek battle once they have regenerated their armour completely' he said. 'And of course they do not age so I would imagine immortality makes them a patient race, if only one that is currently acting with such caution because of the losses we inflicted on them getting here in the first place.'

The academic and diplomat frowned. 'But shouldn't we have attacked them as quickly as possible ourselves to take advantage of their temporary hull weakness?' she asked.

'They might be uninvited guests but that is no cause to behave so inhospitably' Vaselov replied smiling. 'Like good hosts we throw open our doors and welcome them into our home' he said. 'And you should never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake' he added meaningfully.

'Come into my parlour said the spider to the fly' Weir quoted quietly to herself, giving the wraith ships one last look before turning away. 'Janus thinks we're crazy for actually relishing the idea of a Wraith Fleet arriving overhead' she told Vaselov.

Vaselov smiled. 'That is because he thinks of them besieging us while in truth they are just making it very convenient to kill a great number of them all at once' he replied.

In orbit above Atlantis the battlecruiser _Daedalus_and the ten Avenger Corvettes arrayed beside her waited for the Wraith to make their move. All missile and torpedo bays restocked, shields fully charged and her plasma beam, rotary staff-cannon and laser armament operating at peak efficiency Colonel Caldwell was confident the first of the 304 Class ships would again put up a hell of a fight against the far larger but generally inferior enemy vessels.

'They're on the move Sir' Major Marks announced from the tactical chair. 'Our sensor feed from Atlantis shows multiple squadrons of darts plus scoutships ahead of their cruisers with the hiveships following.'

'Finally' Caldwell said with some relief, the waiting and apprehension was starting to get to some of the crew.

'Atlantis is preparing to scramble her F-302 complement' Marks announced. 'Colonel Vaselov is taking one up himself.'

Caldwell nodded. Vaselov was a good pilot, you had to be to have flown against Loki's machines and lived and in this battle he could probably do a lot more good from inside a "Reaper" than he could on Atlantis. 'Prepare to launch our fighters in support once the Atlantis squadrons get up here' he ordered, leaning forward in his command chair. Between them the city and _Daedalus_could field a mere thirty-two aerospace fighters against the thousands of darts the Wraith were bringing to the fight, sobering odds indeed. An X-COM aerospace fighter might be greatly superior to a wraith one in performance, firepower and survivability but not by enough to happily contemplate being outnumbered by perhaps two orders of magnitude in a battle where you were defending a fixed position.

'The wraith fleet has stopped accelerating, at current velocity their lead elements will start picking up our cloaked satellites in approximately twenty-five minutes Sir' Marks informed Caldwell. 'Major Sheppard on Atlantis is in the command chair and is preparing to raise the city shield once the Atlantis F-302's are clear' he continued. 'Doctor Weir has just transmitted a final demand to the wraith fleet on their own subspace comms frequencies for them to either vacate this star system or surrender.'

Caldwell uncharacteristically chuckled. 'Any reply?' he queried.

'No Sir, not yet' Marks responded.

'I guess we'll have to kill them all then' Colonel Caldwell replied sounding not in the least bit upset about that prospect.

The wraith weren't stupid, they had already perhaps paid the price in losses for the overconfidence brought by thousands of years of unrivalled dominance of the Pegasus Galaxy, but they certainly weren't stupid or uninventive. The most recent proof of their ingenuity was that not only had they countered the phase based cloaking technology of their enemy but they had then quickly managed to mount the equipment needed to do so onto their pre-existing scout ships, now allowing them to sweep for phase-shifted opponents much like an ASW Frigate would search for submarines in the oceans of Earth.

Quite how the wraith had developed the technology so quickly after encountering it for the first time had been inexplicable until Janus had revealed it wasn't actually the first time the Wraith had encountered it because the Ancient military had utilised phase-shifting themselves for a short while at the start of the Wraith/Lantean War. Lantean soldiers had even used personal cloaking devices not much different than those later invented by Nirrti until the technology was suddenly shelved for reasons unknown to the public.

As a member of the High Council himself later on in the war Janus did know this was not because the Wraith had actually discovered a means at the time to detect phase-shifted matter. He could therefore only assume that the Wraith must have continued R&D on the problem later just in case and it was this research which allowed them to develop transphase sensors now. Otherwise all he knew of regarding the discontinuation of the use of phase-shifting by his people was a cryptic reference he had once read in a classified document about the technology conceivably attracting the attention of something far worse than the Wraith, though all other references to exactly what that might be were stricken from the records.

Until they had fired shots ineffectively _through_the Tollan warship the Wraith had likely thought the humans were only using the other Lantean cloaking system which was more closely related to their shield technology than it was phase-shifting and could not be so readily countered. Annoyingly to the defenders of Atlantis they themselves had planned to strap a few of Nirrti's personal cloaks to naquadah-enhanced nuclear missiles and fire a few dozen of the things at the cruisers and hiveships in order to score some easy and relatively cheap kills, but now they would have to do it the hard way instead.

Self-sacrifice for the good of the hive and the species as a whole was very much a Wraith cultural and racial characteristic. Add in the cheap production of darts, which like most Wraith biotechnology were mostly grown rather than made, and it was easy to see why they were so willing to throw so many of the things at the enemy, using their tiny fighters not only as scouts and combat aircraft but even as kamikaze projectiles and anti-missiles. In material terms it was better to lose a staggering number of darts in order to preserve even a cruiser, much less the gigantic investment in resources a hive represented, so the waves of inbound darts spearheading the Wraith fleet was no surprise, nor the even larger number that escorted the capital ships. Moreover when fighting the Lanteans darts had actually helped win the war in economic terms because near every one the Ancients had destroyed was a net victory for the Wraith. A dart and its pilot were in fact worth far less as a material investment than the drone which destroyed them, this horrible realisation only registering late in the war when the already overstretched Lanteans lacked the R&D resources to quickly perfect a much smaller, less powerful but cheaper drone considerably better suited for massed use against dart swarms while their bigger brothers dealt with cruisers and hives.

Unfortunately for the Wraith vast numbers of cheap, unarmoured fighters were not quite as good a tactic against a foe that liked to deploy directed-energy weapons and had plenty of cheap, compact power-generation.

Before the scoutships mixed in with the darts in the vanguard of the fleet were close enough to detect them the two types of X-COM Laser Defence Orbitals positioned in space above Atlantis powered down their cloaks and raised shields. Lasers powerful enough to take out a Goa'uld Al'kesh at hundreds of kilometres with a single shot were aimed at the much less robust scoutships and opened fire at the extreme range of their targeting computers, starting to score hits with increasing regularity as the Wraith closed the gap between them. After the scoutships were eliminated the satellites then began to engage the darts, turning any of them which were hit to vapour as the LDO targeting computers struggled to cope with the sheer wealth of laser-cannon fodder that presented itself.

If the ZapSats had been originally intended for use against large numbers of unshielded, thinly armoured craft they would have sacrificed beam strength for rate of fire but unfortunately the LDO's had instead been designed to take out Sectoid and Goa'uld ships not Wraith darts. As such even the handful of modern Mark II ZapSats had a six-second recharge time between firings and the older Mark I a full twelve seconds. At the velocities the darts were going that meant it wouldn't be too long before the Wraith fighters were upon them, at which point the F-302 squadrons and Avenger corvettes would engage the darts themselves not least to try and keep the Laser Defence Orbitals in the fight as long as possible, at least long enough to bait in the larger Wraith ships anyway which was of course the ZapSat's primary mission.

Flying his F-302X as much via the neural interface built into his helmet as he was the joystick, throttle and peddles, Colonel Alexi Vaselov and his fellow Grim Reaper pilots had already determined from examination of flight-recordings of the previous battle between darts and reapers that high-speed runs right through the dart swarm was the best way to conduct this fight. While it was true that a dart couldn't match the acceleration or manoeuvrability of an F-302X, making classic dogfighting a one-sided affair in favour of the reapers, there was simply a greater opportunity to kill more darts more quickly if you simply tore through the whole damn lot of them like a lunatic while holding down the fire-button. Moreover it was a great way to break up the dart formations gunning for the ZapSats as they either tried to dodge out of the way or in some cases crash right into you as Vaselov found when one of his opponents smeared his dart all over the shield bubble of the Russian's F-302, like a bug hitting the windshield as the American's would say he thought.

For the Wraith it was still a numbers game and what they lacked in quality they more than made up for in quantity. A second-generation F-302X might be the meanest thing in the skies short of one of Loki's Type 4 fighters but they couldn't be in more than one place at once and while hundreds upon hundreds of darts were fighting it out with ZapSat's and Grim Reapers just as many had bypassed the fight and were entering the Lantean atmosphere heading towards Atlantis.

In the cities command chair Major John Sheppard watched the incoming wraith fighters projected as a hologram above him, they were nicely bunched up he thought with satisfaction as he shrank the bubble of the city shield to uncover the ends of the piers and the VLS batteries placed on three of them started launching surface-to-air missiles into the sky. The SAM's were only Earth-Tech, incredibly primitive compared to the city itself, but they were long-ranged, supersonic... and carried nuclear warheads.

From one of the balconies from the main tower both Elizabeth Weir's watched the missiles lift off, the trails they left behind as they soared away and them shrinking into dots before ending as blindingly bright flashes in the sky high above the city shield. Unlike most of the other spectators they didn't respond with whoops and cheers at the incineration of dozens of wraith with each flash but instead they recalled the moment they had learned what mankind on Earth had been created for. 'Weapons' one said, 'weapons using the greatest weapons they invented' she added sadly.

'Perhaps both our races should be proud of our accomplishments' Janus suggested from behind them.

'Or deeply ashamed' the other Weir responded.

'That too' Janus agreed, watching as more nuclear flashes were now joined in their efficient destruction of the enemy fighters by laser and plasma beam turrets mounted on the piers. If any darts managed to get closer they would face a barrage from radar-controlled gatling-staffs and rotary-cannon CIWS which would quickly shred them, and all without wasting a single, precious, and as yet irreplaceable drone.

Eventually back in the orbital battle massed fire from the darts had started to take out the Mark I ZapSats but the Mark II's still stubbornly refused to be destroyed. Their far more impressive internal power-generation recharged their shields faster than the Wraith aerospace fighters could deplete them with weapons fire, or even multiple kamikaze attacks which they also tried, and with the satellites continuing to target and destroy another fighter every six seconds, between them, the F-302s and the cities own defences dart losses were climbing fast.

Moreover the entry into the fight of the Avengers with plasma beams and rotary staff-cannon blazing, and also in particular the _Daedalus_with her multiple weapon turrets had resulted in the Wraith leadership ordering the hives and cruisers to accelerate and intervene themselves. The ability of some of the human satellites and their puny capital ship to shrug off the plasma bolts of mere darts would mean little when they were under the main guns of the leviathans now accelerating towards them at full thrust.

This was of course the point at which the Lantean Weapon Platform itself decloaked and promptly blew one of the hives all to hell with a single shot, there was a good reason why the ZapSat's had taken out the scoutships first, they wanted to lure the hives into range of their big brother and they couldn't have transphase sensors spoiling the surprise.

The warships started to fire back immediately but the huge weapon satellite was both shielded and already starting to manoeuvre, making itself a tricky long-range target for the low velocity plasma bolts of its opponents. As it fired again, this time knocking out the lead cruiser, the entire armada of capital ships pushed their engines into the red and changed course to accelerate headlong at the platform, seeking to take it out before it could inflict any more damage.

If the wraith had been paying more attention they would have noted it was positioned almost directly above Atlantis although they still might not have guessed this was because not only were the ZapSats bait to draw the hives and cruisers in range of the old Lantean weapon satellite _it_was bait as well.

On the city below Major John Sheppard grinned. 'Heavy Ion Cannon numbers one, two and three calculating firing solutions and preparing to engage Wraith warships' he said as the Tollan weapons came to life, turrets swinging about and gun-barrels elevating. 'AG-3X satellites decloaking and firing' he continued as he sent the signal ordering the last type of the various satellites defending Lantea to join the fight. 'This should soften the bastards up at least' he reasoned.

Notably smaller than even a ZapSat, let alone the six-hundred metre diameter Lantean weapon platform which had now drawn in the hives and cruisers, what the liquid-naquadria powered AG-3X satellites lacked in stature they more than made up for in raw firepower. True the things had a tendency to catastrophically overload on the first shot, and the chances of them blowing up went up with each subsequent firing, but woe betide anything in the way of the sub-atomic particle beam they projected because they punched ridiculously above their weight.

When the beams from the diminutive satellites first starting slashing into the hulls of the cruisers and hiveships, cutting right through the thick armour with ease, the Wraith at first believed they must each be powered by a ZPM because they couldn't conceive of something quite that small being able to cause so much damage otherwise. It was only when the AG-3X's started spontaneously blowing up (without taking half the solar-system with them) that the Wraith realised they must have just encountered a new power-source with incredible energy density, albeit a power-source that seemed to be more than a little unstable to say the least.

Fortunately the humans only seemed to have a limited number of the things because in their short lifespans the satellites had quickly managed to destroy one cruiser outright in a titanic explosion of its engines, cripple two more leaving them tumbling in space and caused severe damage in three hives and moderate damage in several others. With most of the wraith warships now venting varying quantities of atmosphere and debris into space, they then lost another of their number to the Lantean Weapon Platform which had carefully targeted and destroyed one of the as yet undamaged hives.

'If you liked that you ain't seen nothing yet' Sheppard said with a feral grin as the trio of Heavy Ion Cannon mounted on Atlantis opened up. 'Somebody signal the _Sher-Mal_and tell them it's time to say hello' he continued. 'And tell the jumper crews to start taking out hiveship engines, we've got them exactly where we want them now.'

Phase-Cloaked deep _inside_ Lantea's moon the Tollan Cruiser _Sher-Mal_accelerated and after passing through hundreds of kilometres of solid rock it emerged from the surface and headed towards the Wraith fleet which now lay between her and Atlantis.

Still undetectable by the Wraith the full force of puddle jumpers available for the defence of Atlantis had let the hives and cruisers fly right past them so they now found themselves behind the enemy capital ships, positioning themselves a few tens of kilometres away as they followed. Since they didn't have to fit through a stargate it hadn't been a particularly tricky task for the Atlantis engineers and technicians to strap an Elerium Plasma Beam Cannon to the top of each and now as they shimmered into view they started firing directly into the sublight engines of the hives seeking to disable as many as possible.

The most senior queen in the coalition of hives which had assembled to attack watched with disbelief as the first plasma-bolts from the surface crashed into a hive and blasted off massive chunks of the ship. Other reports then began flooding in that told of engines being knocked out and then of the powerful Tollan warship having finally appeared too.

'It's a trap' she exclaimed before realising just what a pointlessly redundant and obvious statement that really was.

**Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2005**

If the expression on Jacob Carter's face was any indication the situation out there according to the Tok'ra was pretty grim, O'Neill decided taking a seat across from him in the briefing room. 'Sorry to pull you away from whatever it was you were doing Jack but you need to hear this' Jacob told him.

'If I wasn't here I'd only be doing paperwork so I'm all yours' O'Neill replied. 'Carter, I mean the other Carter, is on her way' he continued. 'She'll be pleased to see you.'

'This isn't a social visit' Jacob told him.

'Didn't think it was, but she still will be, and besides which I usually need her to explain any science stuff that comes up to me later' O'Neill responded. 'And here she is' he added as Jacob's daughter appeared.

'Hey kiddo' Jacob greeted her.

'Hey dad' Samantha Carter replied. 'What's up?'

'Nothing good' Jacob told her seriously. 'I'm going to hand over to Selmak to explain' he said, closing his eyes and opening them again 'Lovely to see you as ever Samantha' the Tok'ra symbiote Selmak now greeted the daughter of it's host. 'A pity it only seems to be when we are bearers of sad tidings.'

'Yeah, with the possible exception of Major Davis nobody else suddenly turning up at my door makes me more worried about the state of the galaxy' O'Neill wryly commented. 'So I guess you aren't here to tell us the Replicators have turned over a new leaf and have decided to give up on galactic conquest and form themselves into little scale-model towns instead?'

'Would that were the case Brigadier-General O'Neill' Selmak replied, laughing as Jacob explained the reference to Legoland. 'No I am afraid the Replicator/System Lord Alliance has continued to rapidly expand its domain with Baal's forces, the Tok'ra and Free Jaffa unable to do more than slow the tide somewhat' Selmak told him. 'If it was not for Baal recently rigging all his ships to automatically self-destruct on boarding the war would already be lost.'

'According to our intelligence Thor and the Asgard Fleet can take some of the credit there too Dad' Sam Carter interjected. 'I mean Selmak' she corrected herself.

Selmak nodded. 'The intervention of the Asgard certainly weighs heavily against our joint enemy but unfortunately they have but few ships and the Replicator-enhanced hyperdrives used by the foe have robbed them of their previous massive advantages in speed' the Tok'ra replied. 'An Asgard battleship is still a match for several Ha'tak but the numerical superiority of the enemy is such that the Asgard must travel in groups of three or more ships in order not to be overwhelmed.'

'I hate to say it but Loki has probably helped save our asses so far too' O'Neill noted grudgingly. Every so often several squadrons of the advanced fighters of the renegade Asgard would appear as if from nowhere, shoot a few Replicator ships to pieces and then vanish again.

Selmak frowned. 'Unfortunately it is the intervention of another of our enemy's enemies that has brought me here' he said. 'The Tok'ra have learned of manufacturing facilities on four Goa'uld worlds so far being destroyed by what we believe to be the NID renegades and their cloaked ship' Selmak continued. 'In three cases the facilities were set inside heavily populated areas but this did not stop the renegades from using naquadah bombs.'

'How many dead?' O'Neill asked through gritted teeth.

'Many tens of thousands of Jaffa at least' Selmak replied. 'The Free Jaffa are angry at the nuclear incineration of so many of their people, as you would expect, but knowing that the renegades have enough weapons-grade naquadah to do the same to dozens more worlds is horrifying.'

'But you all know it's got nothing to do with us right?' Sam Carter asked.

'It's still Tau'ri doing it' Selmak replied evenly. 'Certain groups within the Free Jaffa, including a few people in authority, have long resented you and are suspicious of your motives and methods' he said. 'I regret that some amongst the Tok'ra may be thinking on similar lines.'

'Sharp passed your test didn't he?' O'Neill pointed out.

'It is more a case of thinking you are deliberately not doing all you can to catch the renegades rather than a belief the mass killing of innocent Jaffa is official policy' Selmak explained. 'The Tok'ra and Free Jaffa know that you have psionic devices and means of interrogation which could be used to try and track down those responsible but they also know that you aren't using them.'

'Yes we're not torturing American citizens or letting X-COM mind-rape them I'm happy to say' O'Neill responded curtly. 'I know that so far Maybourne hasn't made as much progress as we first hoped he would but we're chasing down a few leads and he's still the best at what he does.'

Selmak sighed in a very human fashion. 'Unfortunately this is being portrayed as you stalling' he said. 'That you're letting the rogues do your dirty work by destroying targets you couldn't yourselves without causing a permanent schism with your offworld allies' he told O'Neill. 'The Nox, Gadmeer and perhaps also the Tollan would likely break off ties immediately if you were equally as ruthless and cavalier in your disregard of civilian deaths but this way you can plead innocence of the crimes while sitting back and reaping the benefit.'

'But you've told them why we can't use those methods right?' Sam checked. 'You know as well as Dad does that we have laws against them.'

'Laws that you don't apply to other people' Selmak pointed out. 'Innumerable Loyalist Jaffa prisoners taken by the Tau'ri were subject to such means of interrogation and that just opened you up to accusations of hypocrisy too' he said. 'In any case we've strayed into another matter Jacob and I wanted to discuss, one that the Tok'ra High Council did not dispatch me to.'

O'Neill leaned forward in his chair. 'Sounds intriguing' he said.

'Your agreement to a Tok'ra acting as an observer in the Atlantis mission has not been well received' Selmak stated flatly.

'Why?' O'Neill asked, confused. 'The Tok'ra have been complaining about not being allowed to participate in the project ever since they found out about it.'

'True and while our leadership would have been pleased to have even a token presence on Atlantis they are extremely unhappy at the Tok'ra the IOA selected' Selmak replied.

Samantha Carter frowned. 'I thought it was a great choice' she said. 'Kelmaa is one of your best scientists and her host is an archaeologist' she noted.

'It is the host that is the problem' Selmak responded. 'In a manner of speaking anyway' he continued. 'Zenna Valk is unusual for a Tok'ra host because unlike the vast majority of them she grew up on an industrial world free of Goa'uld control.'

'Right, she's Pangaran' O'Neill recalled. 'I think the Pangaran government was happy at having one of their own go to Atlantis too so the IOA won points with them as well' he said. 'Yes I do read some of the stuff which crosses my desk' he told Carter who had seemed surprised he knew that.

Selmak looked awkward. 'Unfortunately there is a growing school of thought among the Tok'ra that humans who come from such worlds do not make suitable hosts because they end up having undue influence on the symbiote' he said. 'Such opinions were already being voiced because of the perceived excessive influence of Jacob Carter over me but it has been far worse with Kelmaa and Zenna.'

'Because Dad is military and understands the need to maintain the chain of command and follow orders I'll bet but Zenna doesn't' Sam Carter reasoned.

'Yes that may play a part' Selmak agreed. 'Kelmaa sometimes seems as loyal to her host's homeworld as she does the Tok'ra' he said. 'She is considered erratic in temperament and questions our society more than is socially acceptable.'

'She's a rebel' O'Neill decided, his opinion of her already rising.

'Or at least a malcontent' Selmak replied. 'The only reason why she has managed to get away with her manner so far is that Egeria now resides in Kelmaa's previous host and has inherited a fondness for her as a result' he said. 'Even so Kelmaa is skating on thin ice, to use an expression Jacob just suggested to me, and may face ostracism from Tok'ra society if she does not mend her ways.'

O'Neill looked Selmak in the eyes. 'So basically the Tok'ra don't want Kelmaa on Atlantis because they suspect her loyalty' he said.

'They would much prefer a proven loyalist such as Ren'al who was suggested instead' Selmak confirmed. 'Jacob wishes to continue for us' he said, closing his eyes for a moment. 'Gotta love politics don't you Jack?' Jacob asked sardonically. 'Some of the Tok'ra, including Malek, think that the IOA deliberately chose Kelmaa in order to try and stir up trouble' he said. 'But then Malek also thinks Russell Sharp called his kid Jacob because we're best buddies.'

'So much for the theory that it's using the sarcophagus that made the Goa'uld so paranoid' O'Neill responded with a laugh. Sharp and Jacob Carter were certainly not on what you could call friendly terms.

Samantha frowned. 'You don't think that the IOA really did choose Kelmaa for that reason though do you?' she wondered.

'No, but only because I don't think they've got good enough intelligence on the Tok'ra' Jacob replied honestly. 'Even if they disagree with my assessment Egeria and the Tok'ra High Council might not want to kick up too much of a fuss about Kelmaa because they know it'll not be taken well by the human planets in the United Worlds that the Tok'ra think former slaves from primitive societies make the best hosts, but it's just one more thing that's helping to drive in a wedge between the Tok'ra/Free Jaffa Alliance and Earth.'

'If we don't beat the Replicators how we feel about each other doesn't matter one bit' O'Neill pointed out.

Jacob grimaced. 'Yes and that's the other reason we're here' he said. 'As you know the Tok'ra and Free Jaffa have been fighting alongside Baal to try and stop them.'

'Better to side with Baal than the bugs, can't blame you guys for that decision' O'Neill replied.

'We thought so' Jacob replied. 'So we got a message from Baal that he thinks he knows a way to beat the Replicators' he said. 'We're waiting on more information, and it could just be BS, but Egeria wanted you to have a heads-up.'

'How does he plan to do it?' Samantha queried.

'We're not exactly sure' Jacob admitted. 'The problem is who he said contacted him with the info.'

'Loki?' O'Neill suggested.

'Anubis' Jacob replied.

O'Neill blinked then looked up at the ceiling. 'What next?' he asked whatever higher-power that might be listening. 'I'm telling you right now that if Ra, Apophis and Sokar show up tomorrow wanting to be friends I'm quitting' he declared.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

___Intars would make great training weapons, we see the SGC use them in the show and X-COM would as well. The SGC also developed VR training technology based on the Volsinii design and this would be very useful as a means to harden rookies by putting them through the hell of the Sectoid War without killing most of them._ _The Wraith Enzyme drastically boosts human strength but has a few nasty side-effects. X-COM wouldn't give a crap about the side-effects (if you die they can bring you back anyway) they'd just see it as being instant super-soldier serum._ _After the destruction of T'leth in the Second Alien War (X-COM: Terror from the Deep) Zrbite became totally inert. Here I'm saying that the Aquatoid device that makes it work has a limited range so Zrbite based tech only works in Pegasus. __Nirrti continues to earn her keep at Area 51. Having her borrow a Kara-Kesh (Hand Ribbon Device) to deal with an obstinate Wraith Queen (it's the one captured on the Drilling Platform) seemed apt. She gave it back because she knows full well that she wouldn't have a hope in hell of escaping even with the thing and they're only letting her live as long as she's useful and not causing trouble. Nirrti unlike most goa'uld also seemed to enjoy research and working for X-COM means a steady stream of interesting aliens to dissect._   


_We know not only from Arthur's Mantle but also the Personal Cloaks used by the Sodan that the Ancients had phase-shifting tech but they don't seem to have used it against the Wraith. As to why they started using the technology but then stopped... well you'll find out in the next story in the XSGCOM series! __Wraith Scoutships are quite a bit larger than darts and are hyperspace capable taking an equivalent role to a goa'uld Tel'tak (or an X-COM Avenger). The Transphase sensors they have now been equipped with are an active system that works in a similar way to a Transphase Eradication Rod (or a searchlight perhaps). __Atlantis was firing Standard Missiles from its new Vertical Launch System Batteries. A nuclear tipped version was developed in the 1980's during the Cold War but was discontinued (X-COM simply dusted off the old blueprints). For the city it was actually a little like playing Missile Command until they switched to laser and plasma beam cannon that is after which I suppose it was more like Space Invaders! __Slapping an X-COM Plasma Beam Cannon to the top of a Puddle-Jumper to turn it into a gunboat should work quite well. The beam is long-ranged and accurate enough to hit something a lot smaller than the engine of a hiveship at over 50 kilometres and as long as you make sure there aren't any darts on CAP nearby when you decloak you should be able to safely get off a shot (or two) before going invisible again._

___The Tok'ra starting to believe that Jacob Carter had too much influence on Selmak (because unlike most human hosts they had he was strong-willed and had grown up free) was mentioned in SG-1 episode 7:16 Death Knell. When Egeria took the former human host of Kelmaa (back in chapter 33 of XSGCOM: Goa'uld Defence) Kelmaa was placed in the Pangaran volunteer Zenna Valk and over the proceeding months and years Zenna has been progressively becoming more dominant causing disquiet among the Tok'ra._  



End file.
